The newly formed Department of pharmaceuticals has come out with a proposal of setting up a string of generic stores in the country in a bid to make the essential drugs affordable to the common man. Initially, these stores are expected to come up in 12 states. In the second and third phases, generic stores will come up in all the remaining states. As per the plan, this will be an initiative supported by the Centre, state governments and the private generic players. To begin with the state governments are expected to provide space in government hospitals for starting these stores. NGOs and charitable bodies are also expected to be approached by the Department for setting up generic stores. The Department has identified 300 widely used drugs belonging to 16 therapeutic categories to be sold through these stores. The state governments are expected to instruct the doctors in the government hospitals to prescribe the generic drugs in the list prepared by the Department. One of the main sources of supply of generic drugs will be the public sector drug companies. Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd will coordinate the supply of drugs from its own plants and other PSU units. The entire project will be monitored by a coordination committee headed by the secretary, Department of pharmaceuticals which will be announcing a comprehensive scheme for all districts after the pilot project is launched.

From the concept note of the Department, the idea seems to be workable but strong backing of the Centre and state governments will be required to make the scheme a success. Support from the pharmaceutical industry especially from the large and medium scale units should not be expected. This is quite evident from the lukewarm response the Department got from the major associations so far to the proposal. Large and medium scale units are already having an established network of doctors and chemists to promote their branded generics with huge margins. These manufacturers, therefore, will not forgo such very high margins for the sake of affordable medicines. But the small scale drug units have declared support for the scheme. For them, the generic stores could prove to be a great opportunity with no competition from large units. Small drug units, usually, have low manufacturing margins and survive on large volumes. They have suggested to the Department that they would be ready to supply not only generic medicines listed in the proposal but also other medicines at prices fixed at ex factory cost but with a margin of 400 per cent. This demand sounds rather unreasonable. The Department has, however, agreed to allow a margin up to 300 per cent. A decision is expected to be taken on the quantum of manufacturers' margin soon. What is laudable here is this brilliant initiative took by the Department can bring down the drug prices in the country in a different way. The move should also help to give a boost to the growth of the SSI sector. An important aspect that should not be ignored is the quality aspects of the generic drugs. That should not be compromised at the cost of lower prices.