New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) Thursday put on hold the professional conduct regulations it had published earlier this month.
The move, ThePrint has learnt, came on the instructions of the Union health ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Indian Medical Association, the largest network of doctors in the country, apart from pharmaceutical companies had strongly protested to a clause in the regulations asking doctors to only prescribe generic medicines and introducing penal provisions for medical practitioners failing to comply.
“The National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, are hereby held in abeyance with immediate effect,” said a notification by the NMC Thursday.
“That for removal of doubts, it is clarified that the National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, shall not be operative and effective till further Gazette Notification on the subject by the National Medical Commission,” it added.
It is also clarified that Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, shall come into force with immediate effect, the notification added.
Earlier in the day, ThePrint had reported that the health ministry asked the NMC to modify the Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations.
On Monday, IMA members along with representatives of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance — a group of the largest drugmakers in the country — had met with Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and expressed reservations against various clauses introduced in the regulations.
“The regulation has made it mandatory for doctors to prescribe only generic drugs. It is a matter of great concern for IMA since this directly impacts patient care and safety,” the IMA had said in its representation to the minister.
It is believed that less than 1 percent of the generic drugs manufactured in India are tested for quality, it had argued, adding that patient care and safety are non-negotiable for both, the government and the medical profession.
A drug that goes off-patent becomes a generic medicine and can be made available under an official international nonproprietary name (INPN) or a brand. The INPN is the generic name of a medicine that is accepted the world over but in India, one of the largest producers of generic drugs globally, these medicines are mostly sold in the form of branded generics.
Apart from the issue of generic drug prescriptions, IMA had also protested against a clause barring doctors from pharma-sponsored professional workshops.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Why medical college teachers without MBBS are protesting against NMC’s faculty norms