Resources

(The Revised) Lay Person’s Guide to Medicines, LOCOST, Baroda, India, 2006

This is a book on the political economy of the pharmaceutical industry in India. This publication addresses pricing and related issues of the drug industry in India. It draws upon the experiences and insights of people, who have, over the past 25 years,  consistently engaged the government to ensure access to less expensive, safer, and more rational medicines. CLICK HERE to access the book.

The detailed medicine information which is part of the hard copy is not available here. Contact S. Srinivasan (“Chinu”), Co-author and Editor at sahajbrc@gmail.com for more details.

For more resources, please visit www.locostindia.com

Impoverishing the Poor:Pharmaceuticals and Drug Pricing in India

The immediate context of the booklet was the case pending in the Supreme Court in which LOCOST, Jana Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) and the Medico Friend Circle (mfc) were co-petitioners. We had filed a series of affidavits in the matter questioning the wisdom of the criteria for drug price control in Pharmaceutical Policy 2002 (PP 02). It was our submission that the policy would increase the price of medicines and therefore have a long-term effect, for the worse, on the health of people, especially poor people. The related SC order of 10/3/2003 said, “… We direct that the petitioner shall consider and formulate appropriate criteria for ensuring essential and life saving drugs not to fall out of price control…” Read the book HERE

‘Medicines for All’, the Pharma Industry and the Indian State

- Srinivasan S

When we consider that expenditure on medicines in India accounts for 50% to 80% of treatment costs, India’s pharmaceutical success has clearly not translated into availability or affordability of medicines for all. As part of Universal Access to Healthcare, good quality healthcare should be accessible, affordable, and available to all in need. Providing quality medicines to all – free at the point of service – in all our public facilities is an achievable task. This article estimates the cost of providing free and quality medicines at all levels of public healthcare and offers suggestions
on how this can be done.

Source: Economic & Political Weekly, June 11, 2011 Vol XLVI No 24, 43-50

LIST OF ORGANISATIONS

International Organisations
World Health Organization	http://www.who.int
WHO – Essential Drug & Medicine Policy	http://www.who.int/medicines
International Network for Rational Use of Drugs	http://www.inrud.org
Management Sciences for Health	http://www.msh.org
Medecines Sans Frontieres	http://www.msf.org
International Dispensary Association	http://www.ida.nl
WHO South East Asia Regional Office	http://w3.whosea.org
Health Action International	http://www.haiweb.org
Health Action International – Asia Pacific	http://www.haiap.org

Journals
Journal of Indian Medical Association	http://www.jimaonline.org.in/
British National Formulary	http://bnf.org/
British Medical Journal	http://bmj.bmjjournals.com
Indian Journal of Pharmacology	http://www.ijp-online.com
The National Medical Journal of India	http://www.nmji.in/
The Essential Drug Monitor	http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/monitor/en/

Miscellaneous
Indian Council of Medical Research	http://www.icmr.nic.in/home.htm
Central Drug Standard Control Organization	http://www.cdsco.nic.in
Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Drug Use	http://www.dsprud.org
Voluntary Health Association	http://www.vhai.org
Catholic Health Association	http://www.chai-online.org
Christian Medical Association	http://www.cmai.org/
Essential drugs	http://www.essentialdrugs.org/

Others
No Free Lunch	http//www.nofreelunch.org/
Uppsala Monitoring Center	http://www.who-umc.org/
World Medical Association:	http://www.wma.net/e/
Healthy Skepticism:	http://www.healthyskepticism.org
People’s Health Movement	http://www.phmovement.org
International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB)	http://www.isdbweb.org/
Medico Friends Circle	http://http://www.mfcindia.org/