A medication is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and relies on the science of pharmacology for continual advancement and on pharmacy for appropriate management.
A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active chemical substance is the same, the medical profile of generics is equivalent in performance compared to their performance at the time when they were patented drugs. A generic drug has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) as the original, but it may differ in some characteristics such as the manufacturing process, formulation, excipients, color, taste, and packaging.
Prescription drug list prices in the United States continually are among the highest in the world. The high cost of prescription drugs became a major topic of discussion in the 21st century, leading up to the American health care reform debate of 2009, and received renewed attention in 2015. One major reason for high prescription drug prices in the United States relative to other countries is the inability of government-granted monopolies in the American health care sector to use their bargaining power to negotiate lower prices, and the American payer ends up subsidizing the world's R&D spending on drugs.
Cipla Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai. Cipla primarily focuses on developing medication to treat respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, depression, paediatric and various other medical conditions. Cipla has 47 manufacturing locations across the world and sells its products in 86 countries. It is the third-largest drug producer in India.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad. The company was founded by Kallam Anji Reddy, who previously worked in the mentor institute Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited. Dr. Reddy manufactures and markets a wide range of pharmaceuticals in India and overseas. The company produces over 190 medications, 60 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for drug manufacture, diagnostic kits, critical care, and biotechnology.
The pharmaceutical industry in India was valued at an estimated US$42 billion in 2021 and is estimated to reach $130 billion by 2030. India is the world's largest provider of generic medicines by volume, with a 20% share of total global pharmaceutical exports. It is also the largest vaccine supplier in the world by volume, accounting for more than 60% of all vaccines manufactured in the world. Indian pharmaceutical products are exported to various regulated markets including the US, UK, European Union and Canada.
Essential medicines, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), are medicines that "satisfy the priority health care needs of the population". Essential medicines should be accessible to people at all times, in sufficient amounts, and be generally affordable. Since 1977, the WHO has published a model list of essential medicines, with the 2019 list for adult patients containing over 400 medicines. Since 2007, a separate list of medicines intended for child patients has been published. A new list was published in 2021, for both adults and children.
For health issues in Iran see Health in Iran.
Pharmaceutical policy is a branch of health policy that deals with the development, provision and use of medications within a health care system. It embraces drugs, biologics, vaccines and natural health products.
The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in India is the federal ministry with administrative purview over three departments namely:
Evergreening is any of various legal, business, and technological strategies by which producers extend the lifetime of their patents that are about to expire in order to retain revenues from them. Often the practice includes taking out new patents, or by buying out or frustrating competitors, for longer periods of time than would normally be permissible under the law. Robin Feldman, a law professor at UC Law SF and a leading researcher in intellectual property and patents, defines evergreening as "artificially extending the life of a patent or other exclusivity by obtaining additional protections to extend the monopoly period."
Medication costs, also known as drug costs are a common health care cost for many people and health care systems. Prescription costs are the costs to the end consumer. Medication costs are influenced by multiple factors such as patents, stakeholder influence, and marketing expenses. A number of countries including Canada, parts of Europe, and Brazil use external reference pricing as a means to compare drug prices and to determine a base price for a particular medication. Other countries use pharmacoeconomics, which looks at the cost/benefit of a product in terms of quality of life, alternative treatments, and cost reduction or avoidance in other parts of the health care system. Structures like the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and to a lesser extent Canada's Common Drug Review evaluate products in this way.
A counterfeit medication or a counterfeit drug is a medication or pharmaceutical item which is produced and sold with the intent to deceptively represent its origin, authenticity, or effectiveness. A counterfeit drug may contain inappropriate quantities of active ingredients, or none, may be improperly processed within the body, may contain ingredients that are not on the label, or may be supplied with inaccurate or fake packaging and labeling.
The cost of HIV treatment is a complicated issue with an extremely wide range of costs due to varying factors such as the type of antiretroviral therapy and the country in which the treatment is administered. The first line therapy of HIV, or the initial antiretroviral drug regimen for an HIV-infected patient, is generally cheaper than subsequent second-line or third-line therapies. There is also a great variability of drug prices among low, middle, and high income countries. In general, low-income countries have the lowest cost of antiretroviral therapy, while middle- and high-income tend to have considerably higher costs. Certain prices of HIV drugs may be high and difficult to afford due to patent barriers on antiretroviral drugs and slow regulatory approval for drugs, which may lead to indirect consequences such as greater HIV drug resistance and an increased number of opportunistic infections. Government and activist movements have taken efforts to limit the price of HIV drugs.
India has a multi-payer universal health care model that is paid for by a combination of public and government regulated private health insurances along with the element of almost entirely tax-funded public hospitals. The public hospital system is essentially free for all Indian residents except for small, often symbolic co-payments in some services. Economic Survey 2022-23 highlighted that the Central and State Governments’ budgeted expenditure on the health sector reached 2.1% of GDP in FY23 and 2.2% in FY22, against 1.6% in FY21. India ranks 78th and has one of the lowest healthcare spending as a percent of GDP. It ranks 77th on the list of countries by total health expenditure per capita.
Access to medicines refers to the reasonable ability for people to get needed medicines required to achieve health. Such access is deemed to be part of the right to health as supported by international law since 1946.
Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) is a campaign–public welfare scheme of Government of India. It was launched by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses through special kendras known as Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana Kendra (PMBJK).
Civica Rx is a nonprofit generic drug company founded in 2018 by leading U.S. health systems and philanthropies for the purpose of preventing and mitigating drug shortages in the United States, and the price hikes that can accompany them.
Proprietary drug are chemicals used for medicinal purposes which are formulated or manufactured under a name protected from competition through trademark or patent. The invented drug is usually still considered proprietary even if the patent expired. When a patent expires, generic drugs may be developed and released legally. Some international and national governmental organizations have set up laws to enforce intellectual property to protect proprietary drugs, but some also highlight the importance of public health disregarding legal regulations. Proprietary drugs affect the world in various aspects including medicine, public health and economy.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is a self-governing entity under the Federal Government of Pakistan. It functions under the administrative supervision of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination. DRAP was formed in accordance with the DRAP Act 2012 and is tasked with ensuring effective coordination and implementation of The Drugs Act, 1976.
