New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government is soon to launch its own ‘low cost generic medicine brand' called ‘Jan Aushadhi'. The brand will be available in the medical stores from July 1.
Centre's plan behind the concept is to buy quality generic drugs in bulk from public and private drug manufacturing companies and rebrand them as ‘Jan Aushadhi' products.
The cheaper yet quality drugs, later, will be sold on lower price in the retail market allowing the consumers to prefer government products over the rest. This is a bid to provide a choice to the consumers who are otherwise unknown about the brands of the medicines and largely depend on doctor's prescription only.
To start with, the government has 504 medicines initially which will include several antibiotics, painkillers, vitamins and medicines required in treatment of cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes and gastroenterology diseases.
According to Times of India reports, in the first phase, medicines have been identified from the top 100 drugs only based on their respective sales however, in the second phase more medicines and medical devices will be included.
In the preliminary phase, the drugs will be provided to only 800 select chemists, mostly in and around Delhi however, the same will be expanded to reach most metros by the end of the year.
The Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India (BPPI) which is the nodal agency under the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has already floated the tender seeking application for supply of medicines for the above-mentioned programme.
However, a question still lurks large whether the government will be able to maintain and monitor the quality of products sold under the Jan Aushadhi umbrella as they will be sourced from different firms or not.
According to report, government officials have confirmed that the procurement norms and sampling will ensure quality control.
Initially, even the medical fraternity was not in much favor of the move however; the same has been taken care of by the government.
K K Agarwal, IMA Secretary General said, “Initially, the government had apprehensions that doctors would not support such a move because it may hurt the private sector. However, we have ensured them full support if the quality of products is maintained.”
The government has even planned to mandate the initiative to public hospitals also as soon as it rolls over.
Reportedly, most of the medicines available in the Indian markets are branded products sold by private firms and there are only a few medicines which are patented.
