The Indian Pharmacist Association (IPA), a national association working for the welfare and betterment of pharmacy profession in the country, has urged the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to provide a financial assistance of Rs. 2 lakh as establishment cost and Rs. 50,000 as one time start-up cost to pharmacists to open Jan Aushadhi stores.

IPA secretary general Bhupendra Kumar, in a letter to the DoP secretary, requestsed the government that the present pattern of financial assistance of Rs. 2 lakh as establishment cost and Rs. 50,000 as one time start-up cost given to NGOs, charitable institutions, cooperative societies and other government institutions to open Jan Aushadhi stores should be extended to pharmacists also.

The IPA also demanded that a loan from state/central government or from a nationalized bank should also be provided on subsidized interest rates to the pharmacists who are interested in opening the Jan Aushadhi stores.

Lauding the DoP's recent decision to allow individual pharmacists to open the Jan Aushadhi stores to boost the sagging Jan Aushadhi campaign in the country, the IPA secretary general said, “It is a good move that now individual pharmacists are also allowed to run Jan Aushadhi stores to promote sale of affordable generic drugs across India keeping in mind the huge unemployment among the pharmacy professionals.”

Earlier, individual pharmacists were not allowed to operate these outlets and only NGOs, charitable institutions, cooperative societies and other government institutions were allowed to run Jan Aushadhi stores, which were started by the government way back in 2008 to make quality drugs available to common people at affordable prices. But the response from the pharmacists is not as expected due to huge overhead expenses in opening a drug store.

Drawing the attention of the government towards the need for financial assistance to the pharmacists to open the Jan Aushadhi stores, Kumar in his letter said that the pharmacists in the country are not financially sound and can neither open a chemist shop nor a Jan Aushadhi store. A pharmacist who is also owner of the pharmacy saves on overhead expenses because he is not needed to hire a pharmacy professional, which is mandatory to run a drug store.

Pharmacists are health professionals, practicing the profession of pharmacy.  But, it is unfortunate that due attention is not given to pharmacists as compared to other health professionals. Providing financial assistance will not only help pharmacists but patients will also find a low cost medicine shop with professionalism from a pharmacist in the vicinity of their residence, Bhupendra Kumar said.