Essential Medicines

ABSTRACTRare diseases are a major public health problem and public health challenge. Orphan drugs are medicines intended to diagnose, prevent, or treat life-threatening rare diseases. In a country like India, which is already struggling to provide basic healthcare facilities to its large population, it becomes very difficult for people living with rare diseases to access treatment options. The orphan drug legislation provides the pharmaceutical industry with a set of incentives and conditions to develop drugs for the treatment of rare diseases. The aim of this article is to describe orphan drugs for the treatment of rare diseases, Legislation, Indian Perspectives, Access to Orphan Medicines, Designation, Progress and Sales. Orphan drugs can help pharmaceutical companies reduce the impact of lost sales caused by blockbuster drug patent expirations. In our study we compare essential drugs with orphan drugs and examine approaches and future prospects in the development of orphan drugs.  Keywords: Rare Diseases, Orphan Drugs, Essential Medicines, Orphan Drug Act, NPRD, Advancements in Research.

This study was conducted to Asses the prescribing pattern in representative sample of 24 secondary level government hospitals in Tamilnadu. A copy of the prescription was obtained with the help of a pre-inserted carbon, in a special format. Data for only ‘first encounter prescriptions’ was collected for all patients attending the Outpatient Department (OPD). A total of prescription has been collected. About 68 percent of the prescriptions contained only one diagnosis. The average number of drugs per prescription was 4. About 80 percent of the drugs were prescribed by generic names and about 53 percent of the prescribed drugs were in combination. About 12 percent of the prescriptions contained at least one injection, while 56 percent contained at least one antibiotic. In 16 percent of the prescriptions a vitamin or tonic was prescribed. About 46 percent of the single ingredient formulations were as per the WHO 2003, Essential Medicines List (EML). Based on the findings of the Prescription Audit an EML was prepared for each category of the secondary level hospitals, for use in the OPD. Prescription audits are useful in generating data on morbidity, which forms the basis for preparing the list of essential medicines. Mechanisms necessary for improving Prescription practices are suggested.