The Gujarat government is all set to launch the Department of Pharmaceuticals' (DoP) Jan Aushadhi (generic drug store) programme at the government hospitals in the state for making quality medicines available at affordable prices to the common people of the state.

This was informed by NarayanVyas, the health minister of the state during the Pharmac 2012 event that was recently concluded in Gujarat.

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. But, after that the programme did not pick up momentum and only around 100 such stores could be opened during that last around three years in the country against the target of more than 500 stores.

Jan Aushadi scheme provides an opportunity for the patients to purchase unbranded generic medicine or unpromoted branded medicines at a fraction of MRPs of their branded counterparts. Under this scheme generic drugs are given at 50 to 90 per cent discount on MRP.

According to Dr H G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat State Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), the aim behind introducing this scheme is to improve access to healthcare by reducing the cost of treatment. He said that the setting up of generic stores in the state will surely revolutionise affordability of quality essential medicine especially in case of chronic or acute therapies.

Under this scheme, the Gujarat government will be providing space in government hospital premises for the running of the outlets. Dr Koshia informed that as of now the scheme will be introduced only in around five to six government hospitals in the state.

He said, “The government after due diligence will select hospitals from within the state which has high inflow of patients so that through this we would be able to target maximum number of patients. Then based on the response from these hospitals, we will slowly expand the centres to all the government hospitals within the state.”

He further added that through this scheme the State government will also ensure that doctors working at the Government hospitals will have to prescribe unbranded generic medicines to the patients which will be a huge boost to the generic industry.

“Today, there is no shortage of medicines in the market but just because drugs are available does not mean that it is also affordable to all. Our main challenge is to ensure that there is availability of affordable medicines for everyone. Generic drugs compared to the branded ones are very cost effective for patients who would not be otherwise able to afford the same branded counterparts,” Dr Koshia pointed out.