Corruption is prevalent in the Indian medical profession today. Not only does this result in unethical practices, it also wastes a lot of money which adds to the patient's financial burden. It's well documented that pharma companies will bribe doctors in order to get them to prescribe their drugs, and the Medical Council of India has started penalizing doctors, and even cancelling their licenses, for taking these bribes ( for example, for free foreign junkets, which are often disguised as tickets for attending overseas medical conferences.
If the government is really serious about ending corruption by breaking the nexus between pharma and doctors, then what they should do is go after the CEO of the pharma company which is giving the bribe. After all, if taking a bribe is illegal, then so is giving the bribe. While prosecuting doctors does act as an effective deterrent to other doctors,…
