DOLO Makers Spent Rs 1,000 Crores on Freebies to Doctors to Get Drug Prescribed, SC Told

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. 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 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. 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 so as to ensure transparency and accountability.