NEW DELHI: Have you ever got confused by similar looking or same sounding medicines? Here is some good news. Drug manufacturers may face strict action by the drug regulatory authority for identical sounding or similar looking brand names for drugs, in a move that could reinforce patient safety and mitigate the hazards posed by LASA (look-alike sound-alike) drugs. India has been grappling with the issue of manufacturing and marketing of different drugs with the same brand name for long, a person in the know told ET.
For example, the brand name, 'Olvance' for the antihypertensive drug, Olmesartan, and 'Oleanz', a brand of the antipsychotic drug, Olanzapine. Likewise, the brand, IMOX for amoxicillin tablets for humans, and INIMOX for a combination of amoxicillin and cloxacillin10 as an injection for veterinary use. Earlier, in January India's (DTAB), India's apex drug advisory body, deliberated on the issue of same brand name (including look-alike and sound-alike ones) for different category of products and it suggested that to ensure patient safety, the manufacturing and marketing of different drugs with same brand name should "not be allowed.
" After that, the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) has written to the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks under the ministry of commerce and industry seeking increased surveillance and monitoring of trademarks associated with pharmaceutical products to identify instances of similarity or confusion. "It has come.