Pharmaceutical companies accused of violating law of the land

Udupi, Aug 18: Activits of Association of Medical Representatives, Udupi District, on Wednesday carried out a one day strike and took out a bike rally from Manipal to DC Office Udupi, pressing for their demands.

Dr Annappa Kudwa, HoD of KMC Manipal, Manipal, flagged off the bike rally at Tiger Circle, Manipal. CITU District Secretary Vishwanath Rai was the chief guest and stressed the need for creating awareness about the Labour Laws and Employee benefits under the law. Secretary of the Association Madhusoodhan Heroor, Raviraj HP, Annayya Das, Manjunath, Guruprasad, Ishwar Bhat and others participated in the bike rally. They submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner with their demands. In the memorandum they alleged that both Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies have been violating law of the land and employing illegal means to market their products.

In the process they have been manipulating the services of Medical Representatives. If the Medical Representatives fail to fulfill the targets they would be forced to lose their jobs. ``Under such a situation we demand the appointment letter to all the medical representatives, leave facilities, job registry and promotion as per the Employees Act. We also demand six months labour holidays for the woman medical reps'', they said.

On the other hand prices of medicines have been on a steep rise. Poor quality and duplicate medicines have been rampant in the market. Pharma companies have been marketing their products using illegal means, they said. They also demanded the government to increase the number medicines coming under the Essential Medicines Act from the present 74 to 354. They also demanded the government to rejuvenate the public sector pharmaceutical companies.