In a move aimed to boost the Government’s Jan Aushadhi Programme launched eight years ago, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has asked all the pharmacy colleges across the country to set up low-cost generic medicines outlets in their premises.
“The move aims to promote generic drugs as well as help students undergoing pharmacist courses to get some practical experience in handling medicines. The pharmacy course curriculum makes it mandatory for the students to undergo practical training either in a hospital setting or in a community pharmacy," said an official from the PCI.
He said that the move would ensure setting up at least 1000 Jan Aushadhi stores (JAS) by March 2017.
The Jan Aushadhi scheme, almost a decade-old, was rechristened as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana this year and received a push with government planning to rollout 3,000 more stores by March 2017.
launched in 2007, the scheme aimed to make available quality generic medicines at affordable prices to all, especially the poor, throughout the country, through JAS.
However, it failed to take off with States and government hospitals showing little interest in opening such stores. At present, 182 JAS have been opened across 16 States/UTs out of which only 111 JAS are in operation as on July last year.
Over dependence on support from State Government, poor supply chain management, non-prescription of generic medicines by the doctors, state governments launching free supply of drugs and lack of awareness among the public are some of the reasons for poor response for the scheme, as per a report by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
To push the scheme, the DoP has also planned to tie up with several NGOs, Trusts and Societies offering financial incentives for opening the generic drug stores.
The PHFI has recommended increasing the number of products from 361 to 504 medicines and 161 surgical and consumable items, improving the supply chain mechanism through appointing distributors in different States, increasing the number of functional stores and strengthening the operating agency through augmenting of manpower besides relaxing eligibility criteria of the operating agency for JAS.