The lethargic attitude of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), in involving the participation of the private sector in the Jan Aushadhi Scheme to run it better, once again came in for sharp criticism from the Parliamentary panel attached to the Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry which asked the DoP to increase the coverage of generic drugs with the support of the private manufacturers.

“With regard to increasing the therapeutic coverage of generic medicines, the Committee had earlier recommended that urgent steps should be taken by the Department to include the state PSUs and private manufacturers to increase the coverage of generic drugs available at JAS. The Committee are unhappy to note that the DoP has not given any information regarding action taken on this recommendation of the Committee,” said a recent report by the panel attached to the Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry.

“As the range of generic medicines that are available through the JAS now is limited, it is a huge drawback of the Scheme, the Committee therefore, strongly reiterate its recommendation that the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) should involve the state PSUs and private manufacturers to increase the coverage of generic drugs available at JAS,” it said.

The same issue, along with the slow progress in expanding the programme geographically, was taken up by the panel last year also. But the DoP failed to make a concrete commitment or forward a clear roadmap in this regard, drawing criticism from the panel once again.

“The Committee recommends that the Department should explore options like opening up of JAS through public private partnership and also individual entrepreneurs should also be encouraged to open JAS. Regarding therapeutic coverage, the Committee is unhappy to note that at present, only the medicines manufactured by the Central Pharma Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) are being sold at the existing JAS and as such, the range of medicines available at the JAS are limited. The Committee feel that this is one of the major weaknesses of the Jan Aushadhi Scheme. Hence, the Committee recommend that urgent steps should be taken by the Department to rope in State PSUs and private manufactures to increase the coverage of generic drugs at JAS,” according to its previous report.

Ever since the DoP launched the Jan Aushadhi project on November 25, 2008, the project was hit hard by the shortage of medicines as the public sector units were not able to supply enough drugs required for the stores, leading to the shortage of medicines in most of the stores.