Sanjay Parikh who was representing the Federation of Medical & Sales Representatives Association alleged that doctors were prescribing an irrational dose combination citing a CBDT report.
News18
August 19, 2022 / 08:47 AM IST
Dolo
DOLO, one of the most common drugs that Indian households stock up on, was a matter of discussion at the Supreme Court yesterday where bold allegations were made against the makers of the drug. FMRAI – a body of medical representatives alleged that the pharma company that makes DOLO spent Rs 1,000 crores in the form of freebies to doctors as incentives for them to prescribe the drug.
Sanjay Parikh who was representing the Federation of Medical & Sales Representatives Association alleged that doctors were prescribing an irrational dose combination citing a CBDT report. Elaborating on the issue, Parikh also told the bench comprising of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna “the market price of DOLO upto 500mg is regulated, however the dosage beyond 500mg can be priced at the will of the manufacturer and in a bid to increase profits, freebies were given to doctors to get them to prescribe the DOLO 650 mg.” This Parikh claimed was an ‘irrational dose’.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had on July 13 accused the makers of the Dolo-650 tablet of indulging in “unethical practices” and distributing freebies worth about Rs 1,000 crore to doctors and medical professionals in exchange for promoting products made by the pharmaceutical group. The claims were made after the Income Tax department had on July 6 raided 36 premises of the Bengaluru-based Micro Labs Ltd across nine states.
DOLO is a household name and became more popular during the pandemic as the anti-fever drug that was widely used. This echoed with DY Chandrachud who said “This is not music to my ears because that’s what I had when I had Covid as well.”
The central government representative ASG KM Nataraj argued that “there is separate legislation, under which they are not entitled to set up these things and as per Finance act all these freebies can’t amount to tax benefits adding that they don’t get any deductions.”
The hearing comes after a plea by the FMRAI seeking direction to give statutory backing to the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) so as to ensure transparency and accountability. The bench then asked additional solicitor general to file his response to the plea by the petitioner in 10 days and gave one week time, thereafter, to the latter to file his rejoinder. Terming it a ‘serious matter’, Justice Chandrachud said the case will further be heard again on September 29.
`); } if (res.stay_updated) { $ (“.stay-updated-ajax”).html(res.stay_updated); } } catch (error) { console.log(‘Error in video’, error); } } }) }, 8000); })
