Notwithstanding the Parliamentary panel's recommendations for the inclusion of private sector in the almost-defunct Jan Aushadhi project, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) appears to have shelved its earlier plan to source medicines from the private drug companies for its 121-odd Jan Aushadhi stores which were hit hard by the shortage of medicines as the public sector drug units were not able to supply enough drugs required for these stores.

“Inclusion of private sector drug companies to source medicines for the Jan Aushadhi stores is not under the immediate consideration of the department at present,” a senior DoP official who is involved in decision-making in this regard said. “No final decision has been taken on this front and the subject is not under the consideration of the department presently,” he added.

Earlier, faced with the problem of shortage of drugs, the DoP was seriously contemplating to expand the drug procurement for the Jan Aushadhi stores as the five PSUs were not able to meet the demand for the generic drugs. In fact, the DoP had held several meeting in this regard last year.

The DoP's action in this regard was also prompted by the fact that the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) 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 ambitious Jan Aushadhi project on November 25, 2008 to ensure quality medicines to the poor people at affordable prices, it was hit hard by the shortage of medicines. 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, it did not pick up momentum, mainly due to the apathetic attitude of the DoP officials towards the project for reasons best known to them only.