Telangana govt makes naming medicines in Telugu mandatory

Hyderabad: Telangana government has decided to make it mandatory that all medicines supplied by the government hospitals should be in Telugu. The names of medications prescribed and provided at the government hospitals will be in bold letters in Telugu. Further, names of all generic medicines should also be in Telugu from now onwards, said an official.

Reading names of medicines is sometimes difficult for an educated lot. Several times, we tend to spend more time in locating the name of the drug on the strip. It’s a collective experience for most of us that we don’t know what the doctor prescribed and what medicines we received from the pharmacist. Putting an end to such an experience, the Telangana government has taken a decision on printing names of medicines in Telugu.

Towards this, medicine name should be in bold and big font size in Telugu. At first glance, the buyer or user of medicines should be able to read it clearly without any difficulty, said the official. Barcoding comprising a batch number, manufacturing date, expiry date, quality, company name, etc., is compulsory for every medicine. The government hospitals will reject drugs without names in Telugu and barcode, added the official.

If a manufacturer is producing two or more medicines, then the colour shouldn’t be the same for other medication. The drug manufacturer should maintain different colours for different medicines, remarked the official.

“If letters are in the same colour for different medicines, the patient may get confused about the dosage and usage of medicines. The medicines provided at the government hospitals carry names of medicines in Telugu and TS in rose colour. The medicines that are not for sale also have to be printed in Telugu. The names of medicines in Telugu will not only help those who don’t know English but also educated as well,” explained the official.