Being complacent in pharma quality: Five minutes to midnight

Dr Sumedha Nadkar, Pharma Consultant and Visiting Faculty, shares a hard hitting article which highlights that complacency in pharma quality can have devastating consequences, eroding hard- earned trust and endangering lives. She urges that urgent action is needed to safeguard its reputation and reinforce ethical responsibility

- Dr Sumedha Nadkar

I recently had the honour of listening to the talk of Dr Yusuf Hamied, Non-Executive Chairman of Cipla who inaugurated the upgraded chemistry department at the Ramnarayan Ruia Autonomous College, Mumbai. It has been renamed as 'Dr Yusuf Hamied, Dept of Chemistry'.

He quoted the teaching of Swami Vivekananda, “While knowledge is important its application is even more important”. Looking at the recent incidents in the Indian pharma industry, are we applying our knowledge ethically? Where is the goodwill we earned when the Father of Generics, our own Dr Yusuf Hamied paved the way for generics way back in the year 2001? Nobody can forget how Dr Hamied led efforts to eradicate in the developing world and to give patients life-saving medicines regard- less of their ability to pay, The cocktail of AIDS drugs offered low-cost generic versions of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) at around $1 per day—a ground- breaking move that disrupted traditional pharma pricing. This strategy showcased CIPLA’s corporate responsibility and prioritisation of public health over profit by giving access to essential medicines to one and all.

Dr Hamied had stated then, "I don't want to make money off these diseases which cause the whole fabric of society to crumble."

What would be the reaction of the same Africans who had benefited through our anti- retroviral drugs and praised Cipla?

While the recent government initiatives are laudable, e.g. incentives such as exemption of basic customs duty on 36 life-saving drugs and concessional for cancer, rare diseases, and chronic illnesses, have we considered proactively instituting additional resources for enforcement to prevent their misuse? True, we are not moral policemen to prevent off-label or illegitimate use, but indulging or encouraging such activities is unpardonable.