A Govt. of India Initiative to provide medicines to Indian’s at affordable prices. This Pariyojana was started in 2008 under the name “JAN Aushadhi Pariyojana”. The aim of the scheme was to procure medicines from the manufacturer directly and distribute it through retail counters called as Kendra’s. Till 2014 there were 99 Kendra’s in India & by 2016 – 269 Kendra’s came in to existence and now by end of 2017 – 3034 Kendra’s have become operational. And this Pariyojana was renamed as Pradhana Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana and since then it has added many drugs in to the basket. Presently there are 700 drugs and 150 surgical products are offered under Pariyojana to the retail counters / Kendra’s.

1. Background Over the years, India has developed strong capability in manufacturing generic medicines in almost every therapeutic category. The Pharmaceutical industry has evolved from merely Rs.1500 crores in 1980 to more than Rs.1,19,000crores by 2012. Medicines in almost every therapeutic category are sold primarily as branded drugs, at disproportionately very high prices. There is still a large section of the population which finds it difficult to afford these high-priced medicines. According to World Health Organization estimates (2008), 65% of India’s population does not have access to modern health care. Since 80% of out-patient care and 60% of inhospital care occurs at private facilities in India, households are exposed to a private-sector market to buy drugs (Public Health Foundation of India, 2012). According to NSO estimates, upto 79% of health care expenses in rural areas are due to the cost of medicines. This problem gets aggravated further as almost 80% of expenditure on health care is out-ofpocket to the patients. Thus, access to low-priced generic drugs is very critical in ensuring health care at affordable prices.


2. 'Ensuring availability of quality medicines at affordable prices to all’ has been a key objective of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India. Some important regulatory steps that have been taken to keep the prices of drugs reasonable include: i. Price control of Scheduled Drugs through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA): Under the Drug Price Control Order, 1995, NPPA has been given the mandate to control and fix maximum retail prices (MRP) of a number of scheduled drugs and their formulations, in accordance with well-defined criteria. ii. Price regulation of Non-Scheduled Drugs: Apart from the scheduled drugs under DPCO, 1995, the NPPA also monitors prices of other non-scheduled medicines in a way that price increase is never more than 10% per annum, on a moving period basis. To supplement the above regulatory measures, and particularly to improve access to medicines at affordable prices to all (especially to the poor masses) the Department has decided to launch a nation-wide campaign i.e. the Jan Aushadhi Scheme, as a direct market intervention strategy for promoting use of generic drugs. A key initiative under the campaign involves opening of ‘Jan Aushadhi Stores’ where high quality generic medicines would be sold at low prices. Such medicines would be equivalent in potency and efficacy to expensive branded drugs.

Objectives

Making quality medicines available at affordable prices for all, particularly the poor and disadvantaged, through exclusive outlets “Jan Aushadhi Medical Store”, so as to reduce out of pocket expenses in healthcare. Key objectives; The key objectives of Jan Aushadhi Scheme are to; make quality the hallmark of medicines by ensuring supplies from the CPSUs and also through other PSUs and GMP compliant manufacturers in the private sector. extend coverage of quality generic medicines, which would reduce and thereby redefine the unit cost of treatment per person. provide access to any prescription drug or Over The Counter (OTC) drug in all therapeutic categories as generic equivalents. not be restricted to the beneficiaries of Public Health System but also to serve others. create awareness through education and publicity that quality is not synonymous with high price create a demand for generic medicines “By All for All” by improving access to better healthcare through low treatment costs. also involve State governments, Central Government, Public Sector Enterprises, Private Sector, NGOs, Cooperative bodies and other institutions, being a public welfare programme. develop a model which can be replicated in other countries of the world, in pursuit of their common goal of achieving affordable quality health care.

Salient features of Jan Aushadhi Scheme

Launched in 2008; The salient features of the Jan Aushadhi Scheme were:

• Making quality medicines available at affordable prices for all, particularly the poor and disadvantaged, through specialized outlets called Jan Aushadhi Stores (JAS).
• Provision of built up space for JAS in district hospitals by the State Governments
• Operation of JAS by State Government nominated Operating Agencies like NGOs, Charitable Organizations and public societies like Red Cross Society, Rogi Kalyan Samitis, typically constituted for the purpose
• Meeting the operational expenditure from trade margins admissible for the medicines.
• Supply of the generic medicines in the first instance by Central Pharma PSUs so as to ensure both quality and timely supply. However, wherever required, medicines could be sourced from quality SME units.
• To ensure prescription of generic medicines by Government doctors with proactive support from State Governments

The Idea

Over the years India, has developed a strong capability in producing quality branded and generic medicines in most of the therapeutic categories, evolving from an mere Rs 1,500 crores industry in 1980 to a more than Rs 1,19,000 crores industry in 2012. However, although these medicines are reasonably priced, as compared to the prices of their equivalent medicines in most other countries, yet a large population of poor people in the country, find it difficult to afford the more expensive branded category of medicines. Accordingly, 'ensuring availability of quality medicines at affordable prices to all', has been a key objective of the Government. some of the important steps taken to enable this are:

• Price control of Scheduled Drugs through the National Pharmaceutical pricing authority (NPPA): Under the Drug Price Control Order, 1995, NPPA): Under the Drug Price Control Order, 1995, NPPA has been given the mandate to control and fix the maximum retail prices of a number of scheduled/listed bulk drugs and their formulations, in accordance with well defined criteria and methods of accounting, relating to costs of production and marketing Notably therefore, the prices of these medicines have remained quite stable and affordable.
• Price regulation of Non-Scheduled Drugs: Apart from the scheduled medicines under DPCO, 1995, the NPPA monitors the prices of other medicines not listed in the DPCO schedule, such that they do not have a price variation of more than 10% per annum. This has further helped in keeping the prices of most of the non-scheduled medicines stable and affordable.

About Quality of Drugs supplied to Kendra’s

Quality Control: 12 BPPI would ensure that only quality drugs are supplied through the Jan Aushadhi stores. To ensure this, it is essential that manufacturers of drugs are selected carefully and after due inspection of their facilities to ensure that they conform to required standards i.e. WHO-GMP compliance. Further, samples should be sent for testing on a regular basis. Any failure on the part of suppliers to comply with quality standards should trigger initiation of stringent actions, in addition to blacklisting the firms against future contracts. Though BPPI would ensure quality control through its own channels, the ultimate responsibility to ensure quality of medicines would rest with the manufacturers.

• All medicines that are supplied to Kendra’s will be manufactured by WHO-GMP certified facilities and the Quality testing is done at NABL Approved Laboratories for every batch of drugs manufactured.
• Random Quality checks are made on every batch supplied by manufacturers on maintaining confidentiality and test failed drugs will be recalled immediately from all the CFA, Distributors & Kendra’s.
• Thus the Quality of Drugs have been given utmost priority, Hence 99% patients have reported very good result after consuming Jan Aushadhi Drugs.

Growth of Pariyojana in India (Kendra’s established)

• From 2008 - 2014 = 99 Kendra’s
• From 2014 - 2016 = 269 Kendra’s
• From 2016 - 2017 = 3016 Kendra’s
• Projected for 2017 – 2018 = 5000 Kendr’s

Growth of Pariyojana in Karnataka (Kendra’s established)

• From 2012 - 2015 = 7 Kendra’s.
• From 2015 - 2016 = 21 Kendra’s
• From 2016 - 2017 = 230 Kendra’s
• Projected for 2017 – 2018 = 400 Kendr’s

Supply of Drugs to Kendra’s

There are 10500 Generic Drugs Manufacturers in India and only 1300 are WHO-GMP Certified manufactures. Jan Aushadhi Drugs are procured only from WHO-GMP certified facilities. Quality has been given top priority. Apart from Quality testing by the manufacturer, Every Batch of Drug will undergo another Quality test at NABL Accredited Laboratory and additional to this, the Logistics team will conduct random sample test for every batch before dispatching to CFA’s, Distributor’s & Kendra’s.

Present Number of Kendra’s – District Wise