Jammu and Kashmir Government has approved a State Drug Policy based on rational use of drugs and promising to promote local manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in line with the State Industrial Policy.

The policy, approved by the State cabinet as the culmination of a three-year long process, makes provision for an essential list of medicines which would be procured by the Government for distribution. The policy seeks to set up an expert committee called State Drug Committee to select the essential medicines and to be revised in every two years.

“In order to promote self-sufficiency, the State Government will encourage local manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in line with the State Industrial Policy. The regulatory agency shall enforce relevant guidelines on manufacture including Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Storage Practices (GSP),” the policy said.

“To ensure safety, quality and efficacy of products, the regulatory agency shall regulate manufacture of medicinal products and cause periodic inspection of the manufacturing premises within the State,” it said.

“In all the hospitals of the State, Drugs and Therapeutic Committees shall be established and made effectively functional. These will be responsible for reviewing drug utilization and promoting rational use of drugs. A State level Drugs and Therapeutic Advisory Committee shall also be constituted to monitor the activities of the drugs and Therapeutic Committees of the hospitals,” the policy said.

“The concepts of essential drugs, rational drug use and generic prescribing shall be an integral part of basic and in-service training of health professionals. As such, these shall be incorporated in the curricula of health training institutions. All drugs shall be prescribed and dispensed only by their generic name or International Non-proprietary Name (INN) in the public sector. Regular Prescription audits shall be commissioned in public hospitals to measure the compliance in this regard,” it said.

A Drug Information Centre shall be established preferably in the Government Medical Colleges to  work in collaboration with all the stakeholders in  order to provide appropriate drug information. A State level Formulary would be published annually in line with the World Health Organization/National norms and distributed to all qualified prescribers free of cost or on subsidized rate. This will be funded through the available budget for drugs. It is recognized that activities pertaining to drug information are a right charge on the budget for procurement of drugs, according to the policy.

The State would endeavour to conduct training of drug sellers, continuing education of health care providers and consumer education. The State would endeavour to provide financial incentives to promote rational use of drugs, it said.

“The core of the concept of selection of essential medicines is that use of a limited number of carefully selected medicines based on Standard Treatment Protocols which leads to a better supply of drugs, rational prescribing, reduction in costs and finally to better health outcomes. The procurement of fewer items in larger quantities results in more price competition and economies of scale. Quality assurance, procurement, storage, distribution and dispensing are all easier with a reduced number of drugs. Although there may be about 20,000 medicines/combinations available in the market, with about 300 drugs recommended by the World Health Organization and 268 (348 list) in Essential Drugs List of Government of India, it would be possible to tackle almost all disease conditions. As far as purchase preference for Small Scale Industrial units is concerned this is already contained in the State Industrial policy. Thus it is not required to be mentioned in the State Drug Policy. As and when there are changes in the State Industrial Policy, the same would be applied to the Small Scale Industrial Units of the Pharmaceutical sector also,” it said.

The State is already considering ISM Sector at par with allopathic sector.  The Drug Policy provides for a separate State Drug Committee for the drugs of ISM sector. The said Committee would be asked to prepare Essential Drugs List for each discipline viz., Ayurveda, Unani, Homoeopathy etc. which are popular in the State, the policy said.