Doctors Express Mounting Fears Over Generic Drugs from India

Doctors’ Concerns Grow Over Generic Drug Indian Imports

The other day I wrote about Ranbaxy, an Indian pharmaceutical company that has historically produced large quantities of generic drugs sent to the U.S.  However, Ranbaxy and other Indian pharmaceutical companies are quickly withdrawing from the U.S. market as the FDA has ramped up its oversight of the imports for a variety of problems, including wrong dosage amounts and fabrication of drug effectiveness data.  Now doctors are expressing concern over the remaining generic drugs manufactured in India, especially in the midst of a recent recall of generic Lipitor and FDA banning of imports for several major Indian pharmaceutical companies.

FDA Bans Three Indian Companies From Importing to the U.S.

Recently, Ranbaxy was forced to recall over 64,000 bottles of its generic lipitor for improper dosage amounts.  Furthermore, the FDA has cited quality control and sanitation problems of generic prescription drugs from Ranbaxy, Wockhardt Ltd, and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, all based out of India.  Doctors are just now starting to witness the severity and extent of the problem, leading some to suggest their patients seek generic drugs manufactured in places outside of India.

Indian Drug Manufacturers, Doctors Strike Back

However, despite the FDA’s crackdown of Indian drug companies over obvious production issues, Indian drug manufacturers aren’t taking the criticism lying down.  Some have argued that doctors need to stay out of the FDA’s business, since it isn’t their job to evaluate the effectiveness of a drug, and that these doctors should be reporting any perceived issues to the FDA rather than discussing their concerns with their patients.   In addition, some Indian doctors openly disagree with Western doctors’ concerns over generic drugs from India, and say that they will continue to prescribe the medications to their patients because they are just as safe and effective.