Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Scheme (PMJAS), the direct market intervention scheme of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), will have a ubiquitous presence in Kerala during the next two months with the opening of 170 JAS stores in January and February in all the districts.
Currently, the state has 130 JAS outlets, and 30 more will be opened in the month of January 2017. Approval for further 140 was already given and the foundation work for inaugurating the stores is progressing, said S. Chandrasekharan Pillai, coordinator of the JAS Scheme in Kerala. The DoP is planning to set up a minimum of 600 such outlets in Kerala by the end of 2017, he added.
Prior to grant approval to the second phase of opening 140 stores, Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings (BPPSU), the nodal agency to start and monitor the JAS stores under DoP will appoint one C&F agent for the state to control the supply of medicines. C&F will procure medicines from government owned public sector companies like Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL), Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL), Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited (BCPL), Bengal Immunity Limited (BIL), Smith Stanisteet Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SSPL), Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Limited (KAPL), Rajasthan Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (RDPL) and BCG VL.
The state drugs control department had given licences to 130 stores last November and all of them started functioning from November itself. “Now more applications are coming to the ADC offices and we are clearing them without delay”, said B. Hariprasad, the drugs controller in Kerala. According to him, for the smooth running of the generic outlets the DoP should restrict the number of stores in particular areas as there are more than two and three JAS stores in one place at present. The situation will affect the growth of the business, he said.
BPPSU is receiving applications for approval from district punchayaths, block punchayaths and village punchayaths to open the stores. Besides, several NGOs, cooperative societies, cooperative banks and individuals enterprises are also applying.
The state drugs controller said several community pharmacies have expressed interest to convert their facilities into Jan Aushadhi scheme and they will sell only the generic products. The department is issuing licences to such pharmacies after cancelling the existing licence.
The state coordinator for the JAS said once the 600 target is achieved, BPPSU will go for establishing stores for selling surgical items and by the end of 2017 Kerala will have 150 such stores to sell surgical products at affordable prices to the common man. The present Jan Aushadhi stores have all kinds of medicines, especially for lifestyle diseases, cardiac disease, kidney diseases, and rabies vaccine available at all times. A discount of 50-90 per cent is given on all medicines sold through these stores at present.
The objective of PMJAS is to make available quality generic medicines to the public at affordable prices through Jan Aushadhi Store. The scheme was first launched in 2008 and the first Jan Aushadhi Store was opened at Amritsar Civil Hospital in 2008.