A campaign to promote generic drugs and to make the lifesaving generic products available to the public at minimum possible prices has been launched in Vishakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh. The initiative led by the district collector, drug control officials and eminent people related to the pharma industry, is intended to set up a string of generic retail stores with nominal profit.

As per the campaign, the generic drugs will be promoted in the Rs 150 crore Vishakhapatnam pharma market through setting up of five generic stores set up by the Jilla Samakhya, a women's self help scheme promoted by the District Rural Development Organisation (DRDO) for the welfare of families below poverty line. Four generic stores have been already opened under the Sanjeevani Scheme, a programme launched by Jilla Samakhya, offering 40 per cent discount on medicines to their members and 10 per cent to the non members.

A Formulary Committee to execute the programme has been constituted with Ravi Udaybhaskar, assistant director, Drug Control Administration as chairman. Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmexcil, Srinivas Lanka, former director, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Somayajulu, superintendent, KGH, one professor of pharmacology from KGH, an industry expert, one doctor and the procurement head from the Sanjeevani Scheme are included in the committee.

Plans are to set up one more generic drug store at King George Hospital (KGH), a busy government hospital in the area, and to sell drugs at minimum possible cost to all patients under the Sanjeevani Scheme. The generic drugs will be purchased from the top 20 pharma companies and five public sector undertakings in pharma manufacturing by comparing the product price. The purchasing will be done through the C&F on dealer price and the medicines will be sold with 20 per cent profit - which will be credited to the self help group. A warehouse will be set up with the funds of DRDO in the district and the drugs will be purchased with a wholesaler license, said Udaybhaskar.

“We have selected 236 generic drugs from the list of products prepared for the central government's Jan Aushadhi generic store scheme. Further, almost 70 to 80 drugs including the fourth generation cephalosporins, malarial drugs, IV sets, implants, anti cancer and antiretroviral drugs would be added to the list for our scheme. The project is expected to start in early next year,” he added. Plans are to include all the possible products which has a margin of more than 300 per cent in current distribution system.

At present, a 10 tablet strip of branded albendazole 25 mg is sold at a maximum retail price of Rs 130 even as the dealer price of the same is Rs 13.50 per strip. Similarly, the committee has identified several generic products including ciprofloxacin, cefalaxin, diclofenac, nimesulide, rabeprezol, flucamazole, citrizine etc which has huge difference between the maximum retail price and dealer price when sold as branded products.

The companies which promotes high priced branded generics also manufactures and markets generic products and sold at a lower price. The aim of the programme is to spread awareness among healthcare professionals, doctors and patients about the generic products and its quality, which will in turn promote generic drugs instead of branded products for the benefit of the poor patients.

The major task of the programme is to create awareness among the public and the committee will organise interactive sessions with non governmental organisations, government doctors, Indian Medical Association, Private Hospitals Associations, Rotary International Lions Club, consumer groups, public sector industries hospitals, pharmacists of government and private retail stores, students of medical colleges and pharmacy colleges. The drug control officials and experts from the industry would lead the sessions to emphasise that generic drugs are same in quality of the branded generic products and are manufactured and tested through the same quality control system.

At present, generic drugs constitute 20 per cent of the market in the district and the plan is to promote these low cost products for the benefit of the patients below poverty line and who could not afford high cost products. “This is a good initiative and we will focus on the success of the programme in Vishakhapatnam before expanding the scheme to other areas,” said Dr Appaji.