The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has once again revived its earlier plan to source medicines from the private drug companies for its 121-odd Jan Aushadhi stores, as the public sector drug companies are not able to meet the drug requirements of these Jan Aushadhi stores spread across the country.

According to sources, the DoP is seriously contemplating to expand the drug procurement for the Jan Aushadhi stores other than the five public sector drug companies as the five PSUs are not able to meet the demand for the generic drugs.  The DoP has held several meeting in this regard in the immediate past and a final decision is expected in the next couple of meetings, sources said.

Fresh from the Parliamentary Standing Committee's criticism of DoP for its lackadaisical approach and lack of sense of urgency in ironing out hindrances in establishing Jan Aushadhi stores, the DoP has identified sustained drug supply as a major hindrance in the way of Jan Aushadhi's success.

In its report submitted to the government in May this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had given a dressing down to the DoP for 'making little progress in addressing the inadequacies from which the Jan Aushadhi Programme suffers'. The committee had recommended that the DoP should take credible initiatives towards settling the problems of supply, distribution and production chains and implementing the integrated business plan in a time-bound manner.

Ever since the DoP launched the Jan Aushadhi project on November 25, 2008, the project was hit hard by the shortage of medicines as the public sector units were not unable to supply enough drugs required for the stores, leading to the shortage of medicines in most of the stores.

Later, the DoP toyed with the idea of sourcing medicines from private companies to make available the drugs in adequate quantity. In fact, the DoP had invited expression of interest from the companies in December 2008 and as many as 76 firms including some major companies had responded to it. But later the DoP developed cold feet and finally dropped the idea of sourcing medicines from private companies on the plea that the expressions of interest were found to be not meeting all requisite criteria.

Jan Aushadhi project is an ambitious project of former union chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan under which the government proposed to open one Jan Aushadhi store in each district of the country. The government launched the project on November 25, 2008 when it opened a Jan Aushadhi store at Amritsar in Punjab. Though some more stores were opened in, it did not pick up momentum, mainly due to the apathetic attitude of the DoP officials towards the project.

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.

Meanwhile, the DoP is preparing a revised business plan to expand the Jan Aushadhi programme in which 600 plus Jan Aushadhi stores are targeted to be established within the next two years, and 3000 stores in four years, depending on the response from the state governments.