Rajasthan is likely to replace Punjab and Haryana as the numero uno having the maximum number of generic drug stores under the Union Chemicals Ministry's Jan Aushadhi project as the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is planning to tie up with the 'Confed' co-operative society in Rajasthan for opening the generic drug stores.At present, both Punjab and Haryana have opened eight generic stores each.

With this Jan Aushadhi project, which has been moving at a snail's pace due to bureaucratic apathy, will get a big boost in Rajasthan.In the first phase, around 100 of the total 208 branches of the Confed will be selected to run the stores, it is understood.

According to Pharma Secretary Ashok Kumar, Rajasthan state government had recently entered into an agreement with the department for setting up 100 such shops across the state. The state co-operative federation would run all the shops in the state , he said recently.

Confed is a state-government-run cooperative society which, apart from several other items, markets branded drugs at present. The state government of Rajasthan reimburses the medicine bills of its employees only if the medicines are purchased through the Confed. Confed has its branch in almost all the towns, including smaller ones, in the state.

The Jan Aushadhi project is an ambitious project of former chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan under which the government proposed to open one generic drug store in each district of the country. By establishing the Jan Aushadhis in each district, preferably in the premises of the district hospitals, the government wanted to ensure quality medicines to the poor people at affordable prices. At a time when the prices of medicines are increasingly becoming out of the reach of poorer sections of the society, the Jan Aushadhi stores are expected to prove to be a boon to them. Once implemented according to the prices suggested by the government, the treatment cost is to come down drastically, as much as 93 per cent in some categories.

Though the government launched the project way back in November 2008 with a store at Amritsar in Punjab, it did not pick up momentum after that owing to the indifferent attitude of the bureaucrats reportedly due to the pressures being exerted by the big players in the pharma industry who will be affected the most once the project becomes popular in the country, which has a market of around Rs 50,000 crore. Even though the union chemicals minister Shrikant Jena had put an ambitious target of 250 stores by the middle of this year, it has not so far reached anywhere near the target.

A majority of states are showing little enthusiasm for the central government’s ambitious attempt to sell generic medicines at half the cost of branded ones through its Jan Aushadhi retail drug stores.

A year after the first government-owned drug retail shop came into existence in Punjab, only a handful of state governments have come forward to introduce such fair-price medical shops. Mostly north Indian states, like Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, have set up these stores. Only 25 such stores are functional at present.

The plan to promote quality unbranded generic medicines through Jan Aushadhi stores was riding on the co-operation of the state governments. The central government was responsible for the supply of quality medicines, while the state governments or government-appointed NGOs were to run the shops on a not-for-profit basis.

The government is, however, confident of a large number of outlets being added in the near future. “There are hundreds of shops that are coming up” Ashok Kumar said.

The supply of medicines to the shops is solely managed by public sector drug makers, though the government had invited private drug makers to participate in the programme as far back as December 2008.

But, private manufacturers are not happy with the project. None of them have been short-listed, even after they had applied in December 2008, according to a spokesperson of Small Pharmaceutical Industries Confederation (SPIC) .

Many of the big players were not interested in supplying unbranded medicines at a very low cost to the Jan Aushadhi programme and did not apply.

Jan Aushadhi programme, started by the Department of Pharmaceuticals in August 2008, was a bold initiative to provide generic drugs at affordable prices to the masses. By selling drugs with their chemical names, prices are bound to be far cheaper than the branded products as there are no promotional costs involved. In a market where almost 80 per cent of the drugs are outside price control, the government initiative was perceived as a great relief to millions of poor patients. The Department’s objective was to set up one generic store in each district of the country with the support of the state governments and NGOs.