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Psychiatric medicines in India: why public healthcare facilities and a thriving generics industry cannot assure access and affordability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Anita Kotwani*
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology, V. P. Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi, India, email anitakotwani@gmail.com
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This commentary highlights the poor availability of essential psychiatric medicines at public sector facilities in India and illustrates why even a flourishing generics industry does not assure access to affordable psychiatric medicines for most Indian patients. The paper outlines the Indian government's pricing regulations and then enumerates recommendations for reform.

Type
Thematic papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2012

References

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