Union Minister of State for Shipping and Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mansukh Mandaviya, talks about how the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana has benefitted citizens
Working tirelessly for affordable healthcare for the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus has been on various health related aspects for people coming from different walks of life. He believes that alongside infrastructure, there should be a major focus on the health sector reforms. Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana, Fit India Movement, Ayushman Bharat Yojana are the results of his vision. He has been interacting with the nation time and again, urging them to embrace fitness as the way of life. However, in case of any healthcare requirements, he has provisioned for affordable solutions for all to access.
In 2014, when the government of Narendra Modi came in power, he took up the cause of creating awareness about generic medicines and demand among the common people. Jan Aushadhi scheme focuses on price fixation of various drugs and medicines. With 6,209 Jan Aushadhi kendras, covering 700 districts out of 728, they facilitate for 900 drugs and 154 surgical items. Jan Aushadhi kendra is the world’s largest chain of pharma stores covering all major therapeutic categories such as anti-infective, anti-diabetic, anti-cardiovascular, anti-gastrointestinal and even anti-cancer. The sales of the kendras in the FY 2019-20 have crossed Rs 391 crore leading to the total savings of approximately Rs 2,200 crore for the common citizens as these medicines were availed at 50 to 90 per cent cheaper rates than the average market price of that particular dozes.
To strengthen the supply chain, boost its efficiency and ensuring that the medicines reach the customers in good health and on time, special arrangements were devised around a robust IT enabled end-to-end supply chain management system. This intelligent Supply Chain Management System efficiently manages Central Warehouse and three regional warehouses. The warehouses powered by technical expertise are temperature controlled. They record the medicines through radio scanners at the time of arrival, specify their place and store them at exact spots with the help of automated cranes and trolleys. This warehouse in Manesar has a systemised way of three layer scanning system, storing and dispatching the generic medicines with utmost care and expertise.
Prioritising women’s health and promoting importance of hygiene during their menstrual cycles, a step towards women empowerment was taken by the Government. Oxo-biodegradable Suvidha Sanitary Pads were launched at Rs 2.5 per pad on June 5, 2018 and its price was slashed to Rs 1 per pad in August 2019. It is now available at various Jan Aushadhi kendras.
Soon the government targeted essential medicines for the price control, which had an effective impact on the National List of Essential Medicines. Till now, the price of 957 drugs has been put into price fixation which resulted in approximately Rs 5,416 crore savings. The maximum retail price of 106 formulations (anti-diabetic and cardiovascular) has been capped by NPPA, the prices of Coronary Stent and Orthopaedic Knee Implants saw reduction upto 85 per cent in February 2017 and upto 69 per cent in August 2017 respectively resulting in Rs 6,047 crore savings. Also NPPA has capped the cancer related medicines with a trade margin of 30 per cent, which has also helped Jan Aushadhi scheme to reach out to maximum number of common citizens and providing a relief from excessive cost.
Reported as one of the highest expenditure disease in 2014, Cancer demanded a substantial portion of the expense to be spent on drugs. To harness this alarming situation, the government curbed the prices of anti-cancer drugs. So far, 59 anti-cancer drugs are already under price control as scheduled formulations and NPPA have fixed ceiling price of 81 scheduled formulations of such medicines. The immediate result was reduction in MRP of drugs up to 91 per cent covering 565 brands. For instance, the previous price of BIRLOTIB brand tablets (10 pack) of ERLOTINIB 150 mg medicine was Rs 9,999 and post price control, it is reduced to Rs 892 per pack. Similarly, PEMESTAR 500 was priced at Rs 25,400 per injection, which has been reduced to Rs 2,509 per injection. This resulted in the savings of Rs 984 crore, giving a relief to the cancer affected patients and to their family.
The overall saving done in favour of the consumers accounts for Rs 14,447 crore approximately. The success of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana becomes evident when the people of India now term these affordable medicines as Modicines and the Jan Aushadhi kendras as Pradhan Mantri ji ki dukan.
