Drug scam: MCI to take strict action against rogue doctors

The Medical Council of India has vowed to take stern action against rogue doctors who had recommended certain drugs to the CDSCO, recommendations which were written by drug companies themselves. Yesterday the nexus between drug companies and doctors was exposed. Drug companies were writing scientific recommendations of their own drugs and submitting them to the DCGI after getting them endorsed by doctors. This led to drugs being released without clinical trials or any proper protocol.

MCI chairman Dr K K Talwar said the council would take strict action against the doctors, “We will be asking the DCGI to reveal the names of all the doctors involved in the scam. The ethical committee of the MCI will examine the document and take stern action against doctors involved if proven guilty. Doctors should realize they are doing great harm to the country by such acts.

Unfortunately, the system has permitted them to do so till now,” he said. Doctors from PGI Chandigarh, CMC Vellore, AIIMS Delhi and St John’s Medical College Bangalore had signed those recommendations. Usually, scientific recommendations are submitted by experts after they have studied a drug’s content. All this started when the Parliament Standing Committee noted several irregularities in the way the CDSCO functioned. They noted how several drugs were being passed without clinical trials.  The CDSCO also has a severe staff shortage and there are only 900 DIs for a country which is the leading manufacturer of generic drugs and has a population of 1.2bn.