India, July 14 -- A case study by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad highlighted how the advertisement of a mother caring for her sick child by applying Vicks turned the brand into a cultural icon of caregiving. This is how medicine names acquire trust and reliance over time. In this backdrop, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation's (CDSCO) circular proposing to regulate the use of similar brand names for medicines containing different active pharmaceutical ingredients and serving distinct therapeutic purposes warrants attention. It recognises that confusion between medicines cannot be treated merely as an intellectual property dispute. It is equally a question of patient safety.

However, as the regulator tightens pha...