If It Is India, It Is Bungling Babus. A little reported event took place in Amsterdam. This holds tremendous significance to the world and exposes the murky functioning of the medical world. A ship carrying drugs from India to a poor country was impounded at Amsterdam. Reason? It was carrying generic drugs from India to poor patients say in Africa.

In another tragic incident in the US a doctor of Indian origin is a well known cancer specialist with compassion for his patients. He found that several patients could not afford branded medicines and found a way to treat them — with generic drugs from India. These were identical in every way to the branded ones but cheaper by almost 90%.

It so happened that someone reported this, admittedly disallowed act to the authorities. The doctor now faces punishment. Twenty years in jail plus $ 5 million fine. The doctor’s relatives from India traveled to USA and sought a meeting with President Obama who refused to meet them. I report this to arouse the conscience of readers and also to point out the scandals and frauds perpetrated by pharma companies.

A research report prepared by the premier medical research agency in UK says that 90% of the 2700 drugs used to treat heart ailments ARE NOT EFFECTIVE. Indeed a doctor friend of mine in the US says that the medical profession is far from scientific. While in every field there is a demand for evidence for assertions little evidence exists for the efficacy of medicines and surgical procedures in many cases.

That brings me to the patented vs generic drugs issue. A drug is patent protected for a certain number of years after which it can be made by any company without paying royalty to the patent holder. At the end of the patent period it is called a generic drug. The cost of generic drugs is a fraction of the patent protected one and is therefore of benefit to patients. India has a reputation for making quality generic drugs.

However pharma companies throttle any effort by someone to make generic drugs since it affects their profits. This is a little discussed conspiracy. The Amsterdam authorities impounded the India made generic drugs simply because their laws disallow even the passing of generic drugs through its ports! Imagine the following two scenarios :

1) Three American tourists enter Iran without visas and are arrested. The punishment according to Iran laws [just an example not the exact position] – twenty years in jail plus $5m in fine. What is the reaction in the US: ‘Typical’ Islamic punishment’? Does this punishment not resemble the plight of our Indian doctor?

2) Second scenario— A US ship carrying food like beef for starving people in Pakistan is impounded in Kolkatta port since India forbids loading/unloading/movement of beef in India. What will be the reaction in US and more so in the English media in India? ‘Typical’ bungling Indian bureaucracy’.
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K.R.RAVI