Healthcare

3,000 fair price shops stocking quality medicines by year end

medicines (File photo) Representational image

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech last month about a move to make generic medicines mandatory, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar on Friday said the country would have more than 3,000 Jan Aushadi Kendras by the end of the year. These kendras are fair price shops selling generic medicines.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, any pharmacist can apply and set up such a store. Currently, there are 1,300 such stores in the country, and the government is keen to ramp up the numbers after the PM's announcement on "affordable" healthcare. While these stores sell generic medicines that are more affordable than their branded counterparts sold at pharmacies, they are often plagued by shortages and quality issues.

Addressing the issue of quality that comes up each time the subject of generic medicine is raised, Ananth Kumar said only those medicines that had passed the WHO Global Manufacturing Practice benchmarks would be procured for these shops.

Doctors who are under the scanner for writing branded medicines instead of generic have held that they need to retain the right to prescribe whatever brand they felt was best for the patient. The MCI clause that states that doctors "should" prescribe generic medicines has been interpreted by doctors' bodies as not mandatory. However, at a press meet on Friday, Ananth Kumar hinted at a law to amend the "should" to "shall", and also suggested that there would be relevant amendments to Drugs and Cosmetics Act to ensure that there were no substitutes handed out for generic medicines.

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Topics : #Healthcare

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