The Tamil Nadu government has no immediate plan to launch the Jan Aushadhi scheme launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) in 2008, as the state has its own medical shops operating under its cooperative department, said a senior health official.

He further added that the Cooperative Medical Shop (CMC) wing operating under the state cooperative department will have more outlets spreading all parts of the state soon, including those district headquarters which have so far no cooperative super markets. The government is interested to start more CMC outlets rather than launching Jan Aushadhi scheme, he said.

He claimed that Tamil Nadu was the only state where medicines, including all essential drugs, are being supplied to the patients free of cost through government hospitals. “This is the state where the perfect condition of drug distribution system is prevailing. When we have our own well established medicine distribution system, why should we bother about launching a different scheme,” he said.

The government received a letter from the union government one year before asking to take steps to start the Jan Aushadhi scheme. But so far no development has taken place in the matter, said M Rajendran, the drugs control director, when contacted.

He has confirmed the information that the government has decided to increase the number of cooperative medical shop outlets in all parts of the state with three more units in Chennai alone. Super markets under the cooperative sector are operating the medical shops and where ever the super markets function, there will emerge the CMC outlet. The stores are functioning very well and their services are also good, he said.

Referring to the obliging function of the stores, the drug control director said the Tamil Nadu government started the co-op medical stores 40 years ago. In Chennai, the CMC outlet is operating at Chintamony super market and in Madurai it is in the Pandian Stores. There is Karpagam store in Vellore, Chintamany in Trichy and Kaveri in Tanjore. The Tamil Nadu cooperative medical shops would stock all kinds of drugs and would dispense the medicines at concessional prices. The medicine sold through this shop would not suffer any sales tax and most of these shops are functioning round the clock throughout the year, he added.

For all kinds of medicines of the Indian System, Tamil Nadu has the multi-state cooperative society, IMPCOPS, which distributes medicines in the entire area of south India.

Jan Aushadhi scheme was started by the department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers in 2008 in order to sell generic drugs to the common man on concessional rates.