Date:07/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/07/stories/2007110756831205.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Unhealthy practice

Pharmaceutical companies spend a whopping $19 billion annually for establishing and maintaining a relationship with doctors to increase the sale of their drugs as mentioned in the editorial “Towards greater transparency” (Nov. 5). Competition among drug firms is welcome if it can facilitate the production of quality drugs and their sale at comparatively low prices. But it is not a good trend if the rates of drugs are pitched high and the companies try to push them into the market by influencing or goading the medical practitioners to prescribe those expensive medicines to their patients.

R.M. Manoharan,

Chennai