Revisiting Jan Aushadhi scheme to expand reach: Govt

To expand its reach across the country, the government is revisiting Jan Aushadhi scheme which was started to make available low-cost medicines to people through drug stores, Parliament was informed today.
Since the inception of scheme in 2008 only 176 Jan Aushadhi stores are opened across the country and only 96 are functional as on date, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said.
"Under the circumstances the scheme is being revisited to expand its reach across the country," he added.
Replying to a separate question, he informed the Rajya Sabha that NPPA has so far fixed the ceiling prices of 509 essential medicines.

Under the Drug Price Control Order 2013, there are 680 essential medicines specified in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), categorised as scheduled formulations under the price control.