The Haryana government will provide free medicines to all patients visiting the government hospitals spread across the state- right from district hospitals down to rural dispensaries. The government will utilise the funds provided by Union health ministry under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for this project. Under this project, the government will spend a total of Rs 40 crore, Rs 50 lakh per quarter per district in the state.

NRHM seeks to provide effective healthcare to rural population throughout the country with special focus on 18 states, which have weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure. The goal of the Mission is to improve the availability of and access to quality healthcare by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor, women and children.

Meanwhile, the small scale pharma manufacturers in Haryana have offered to provide the medicines at cheaper than the prevailing market rates for this project. SME Pharma Industries Confederation (SPIC), an organisation of small pharma companies, has sent a letter to chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asking him to source all the medicines for this project from the SSIs in the state, which are struggling to survive due to several anomalous government policies.

The SPIC has also sent a list of 30 common drugs which the SSIs will be able to provide to the government at much lower price for this project.

As per the list, the SPIC will offer cough syrup at Rs 10 per 100 ml bottle against the prevailing market rate ranging from Rs 33 to Rs 47 for a 100ml bottle for the popular brands like Benadryl, Glycodin, Zedex, Piriton and Trustyl manufactured by reputed companies like, Pfizer, Alembic, Wockhardt Glaxo and Piramal.

Likewise, the SSIs have offered to provide analgesics/anti-inflammatory drugs at Rs 6 against the prevailing marketing rate ranging from Rs 15 to 24 for 60 ml for the popular brands like Crocin, Nobel Plus, Calpol, Febrex and Pacimol. For antibiotics / anti-infectives, the SPIC has offered to provide at Rs 8 to 10 for 30 ml against the marketing rate of Rs 30 to 32.

"We have given our offers to the chief minister for this noble mission. If the government sources medicines from the SSIs in the state, it will be a good support to the around 100 small pharma units in the state which are struggling to survive," SPIC joint secretary Vinod Gupta said.