Certain medicines are being aggressively marketed in India despite inadequate evidence of safety and efficacy, putting patients at risk, said reputed medical journal Lancet. Highlighting weak regulation and monitoring of the domestic drug industry, three recently-introduced medicines are being prescribed and sold though there is a lack of rigorous trials on crucial safety and efficacy parameters. The pharmaceutical industry in India should face the same stringent regulations as elsewhere in the world, rather than continuing to allow patient safety to be put at risk by unproven drug treatments, says an article shared exclusively with TOI.
Though the analysis refers to case studies of only three medicines — Saroglitazar, Hydroxychloroquine and Berberine, it raises serious questions on the overall quality of drugs being manufactured, besides enforcement of rules and monitoring. Before a…
