Question : DRUG RECOMMENDATIONS BY DOCTORS

(a) whether the Government is aware of a scam in which many doctors have endorsed scientific recommendations for drug companies written by the companies themselves for the drugs and products produced by them in collusion of doctors and drugs companies and submitted to Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO);

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;

(c) whether the Medical Council of India (MCI) has taken action against these erring doctors;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI GHULAM NABI AZAD)

(a) to (e): The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare in its 59th Report on the Functioning of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has inter alia stated that many opinions of the experts were actually written by the invisible hands of drug manufacturers. Government has constituted a three member expert committee comprising Dr. V.M. Katoch, Secretary (Department of Health Research) and Director General, ICMR, Dr. P.N. Tandon, President, National Brain Research Centre, Department of Biotechnology, Manesar and Dr. S.S. Aggarwal, former Director, Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow to examine the validity of the scientific and statutory basis adopted for approval of new drugs. The Committee is yet to submit its Report.