SHOAIB SHAIKH | NT Staff Reporter
PANAJI: Doctors in the government hospitals in the state will not prescribe the anti-diabetic herbal tablet recently launched by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The CSIR launched its first ayurvedic anti-diabetic drug BGR-34 in Goa recently. The medicine has been researched and developed jointly by the CSIR Laboratories, National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP).
Senior medical practitioners in the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) at Bambolim informed this daily that the government doctors cannot prescribe a recently launched medicine, even if it has been launched by a government research laboratory or organisation. Stating that until the effects of the medicine on every kind of patient are not verified, a senior doctor said the medicine cannot be prescribed in a government hospital. “It would be wrong on the part of the doctor to prescribe a medicine whose effects are not known,” the doctor said.
When pointed that the drug is a product of research conducted by the central government organisation CSIR at its laboratories, the doctor said that the procedures for a state-run hospital do not allow the doctors to prescribe a medicine until it has been available in the market for a minimum period of five years.
Confirming the stand of the senior doctor, Dr Edwin Gomes, professor of medicine at the GMC, said that unless the medicines are mentioned in the books taught at the college, the drug cannot be prescribed. “The standard procedure that the GMC follows is that any drug should be available in the Indian market for atleast five years, if not more. We would want to see its performance and only then prescribe it,” he said.
Gomes further said that unless the doctors are certain about its effects on a patient, they cannot prescribe the medicine. “In case when a patient is undergoing medication and a student enquires about the effects the tablet would have on the patient, I should be able to reply to the student,” he said.
Chemist and Druggist Association of Goa (CDAG) president Prasad Tamba said that as there are different types of diabetes and different factors leading to the disease, the markets will wait for the response of the patients before commenting on the drug.
He further said that while the medicine has been officially launched by CSIR, and AIMIL Pharmaceuticals (I) Ltd has been given the manufacturing and distribution rights, the tablets are yet to be seen on a large scale. “I have seen the reports of the tablet being launched. However, it will take some time till the tablets are available in chemist shops,” he said.
Dr Himanshu Sharma, an expert in ayurveda medicine and one who recommends the BGR-34, stated that the pharmaceutical company would not be differentiating between the different sciences of medicine. The tablets would be introduced to medical practitioners to be prescribed to the patients, as well as available at the chemists’ outlets for retail sale, he said.