Gujarat govt says no to Centre's 'Jan Aushadhi' model

State to continue with its own free medicines scheme through CMSO

At a time when the Union department of pharmaceuticals is working on reviving the 'Jan Aushadhi' project to make generic drugs available to buyers at an affordable price, Gujarat says it will stick to its self-developed model of offering free treatment for segments of the population. The state is yet to open a single Jan Aushadhi store here, and has no plans to do so in future as well.

"Yes, the Centre has recommended the Jan Aushadhi model to us as well. But, we are already following a better model here for the last ten years", said state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas.

 

He explained that the state government currently runs a scheme to not only provide free medicines, but bear the entire cost of treatment for children below the age of 18 years at public hospitals. Besides, the scheme is also extended for all below-poverty-line (BPL) families as well. "Plus, we also offer treatment at private institutions for BPL families up to a maximum limit of Rs 30,000", Vyas claimed.

The Centre is mulling to revive its Jan Aushadhi scheme, and now plans to float open tenders to procure drugs for the Jan Aushadhi stores in order to improve the supply chain for these stores across the country. Currently, there are 117 Jan Aushadhi stores across India, and the department of pharmaceuticals plans to expand the number to 600 over the next two years, and further up to 3,000 by 2016.

Gujarat has been following the open tender route to procure drugs since a long time. The Centre is now planning to commercialise its Jan Aushadhi scheme by roping in private sector pharma players to supply essential drugs.

The state Central Medical Stores Organization (CMSO) procures drugs through open tender, which are then examined by the state Food and Drugs Control Authority (FDCA) officials. "The samples are sent for analysis at the Baroda Food and Drugs Testing Laboratory to check the quality before they are distributed to government hospitals in the state", informed H G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat FDCA.

"Both public sector and private drug makers participate in the tendering process", Vyas said.

The CMSO has over 100 drugs in its list of essential medicines, including life saving drugs.

This covers almost all major diseases, says Koshia, except for those for which the state government already has separate schemes like malaria, malnutrition etc.

The state health department has allocated Rs 78 crore for the procurement of medicines under the CMSO scheme this fiscal. This is significantly up from last year's allocation of Rs 45 crore.

Vyas, however, was unable to share the combined budgetary outlay for all these schemes.

"It is very difficult to put a figure to the net expenditure under all the schemes combined including free treatment at Government hospitals", he said.