A total of 30 more Jan Aushadhis (generic drug stores) will be opened in Rajastan during August, covering all the districts in the states. Presently, there are two stores in the state, one each in Jaipur and Alwar. In other parts of the country, Jan Aushadhis will be opened in Punjab and Haryana in August, taking the total to cross the 50 mark. Most of these stores will be opened on the premises of government hospitals.

The Union chemicals ministry's popular 'Jan Aushadhi' project, which virtually came to a standstill during last couple of months due to the general elections, has started picking up momentum. Now more and more stores will be opened in the coming months till all the districts in the country are covered under the project, sources said.

Under the project, the government proposes to set up generic drug stores in each district of the country to make quality medicines available at affordable prices to the poorer sections of society.

At present, all the medicines for the Jan Aushadhi stores are sourced from the public sector pharma companies like IDPL and RDPL. But, the stores will source medicines from the private players once the project gets good response from the public. Now, 232 generic medicines are available in the Jan Aushadhi stores and 40 more will be added by the end of this month. By the end of August, there will be a total 350 generic medicines available in the Jan Aushadhi stores, which will cover around 80-85 per cent of the prescriptions, sources said.

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.

The government launched the project on November 25 last year when it opened a Jan Aushadhi store at Amritsar in Punjab. The second store was launched at Shastri Bhawan in Delhi on February 2, 2009 while the third store was launched in Gurgaon on February 4. Stores were also opened in Mohali and Panchkula on February 11.