The Health Ministry has categorically made it clear that there is no proposal under consideration of the Government to bring in amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules to make mandatory the registration of all brands of medicines by the manufacturers.
The clarification comes in the wake of reports that the Government was considering a proposal to make it mandatory for the drug manufacturers to register all their brands, with a view to avoid duplication of brands in the market.
“The Health Ministry has not considered any such proposal now to change the rules of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act in this regard,” a senior official of the ministry said.
Earlier reports, quoting Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Srikant Jena, had said the government was having such a proposal under consideration and there was need to regulate the duplication of brands to avoid confusion.
The Pharma Department is learnt to have also held discussions with some industry associations on suggesting ways to regulate brands and one of the ideas emerged was the mandatory registration. However, the administrative ministry of the D&C Act is Health and it has now ruled out such a move.
The idea of mandatory registration of brands has been under discussion for some time now, as the regulatory officials wanted to have a centralised database to streamline the process of issuing brand names. Sources said, even a direction in this regard had come from the Supreme Court a decade ago asking the regulatory authority to co-ordinate with the trade mark office, but no action could be initiated so far.
Officials held that there were many common brand names by different companies in the pharmaceutical market and consumers were getting confused. Besides, companies also have variants of existing brand that are strikingly similar to a different product with a view to cash on the popularity of the successful brand names
