Explained: What is the Dolo freebies case?

The makers of tablet Dolo-650 have been accused for distributing freebies of around Rs 1,000 crore to doctors as consideration for prescribing the tablet.

The issue was taken up by the Supreme Court, which deemed it as a 'serious issue'. The Apex court was made aware of the issue by the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Justice Chandrachud, hearing the case termed it a 'serious issue' and stated that he was also asked to do the same while diagnosed with the virus.

What is Dolo-650?

Dolo-650 is the name given to the fixed-dose combination drug containing 650 mg of antipyretic drug paracetamol. It is usually taken to treat fever and pain, as it is also an analgesic drug.

How did Dolo-650 get so popular?

The use of the drug skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic, since the main symptoms for the virus were fever and pain. This helped the company garner a 138.42 per cent hike in revenue, with sales going up by about 290 per cent. This is often attributed to the excess marketing done by Micro Labs, the makers of the said drug, followed by the low supply of other paracetamol brands.

What is the controversy about the freebies?

The Supreme Court Thursday was told by an NGO that the Central Board of Direct taxes has accused the Pharma company manufacturing popular Dolo tablets, an anti-inflammatory, fever reducer drug, of distributing Rs 1,000 crore freebies to doctors for prescribing a dosage of its 650 mg tablets.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna was told by senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for petitioner 'Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives Association of India', that the market price of any tablet up to 500mg is regulated under price control mechanism of the government but the price of drug above 500mg can be fixed by manufacturer Pharma Company.

He said that to ensure a higher profit margin, the company distributed freebies to doctors to prescribe the Dolo drug of dosage 650mg capacity.

Parikh added that it is an "irrational dose combination" and said that he would like to bring more such facts to the knowledge of the court after a response is filed by the Centre.

He had submitted that Pharmaceutical companies are saying that they are not liable as the bribe-takers are the doctors and in foreign countries, they have legislation to curb these unethical marketing practices.

Parikh said that the government should look into it and the code should be made statutory in nature as "we all know what happened with Remdesivir injections and other drugs of those combinations”.

How the company responded to the accusations?

According to a statement given out by ANI, Micro Labs shrugged off the allegations, claiming to having only made Rs 350 crore during the pandemic times.

They also stated that Dolo-650 was not the only drug who's income and production skyrocketed, and gave examples of Covid protocol drugs like Vitamin C which saw huge sales and revenue during Covid.

(With inputs from PTI)