nearly 500 low-cost drugs supplied by the government at your neighbourhood pharmacy from July under Jan Aushadhibrand if a plan proposed by an expert panel is implemented. The drugs are likely to cost 50-95 per cent less than their private branded counterparts, members of the expert committee told ET, adding that the medicines selected under the scheme span six therapeutic categories including cardiovascular, diabetes, respiratory and antibiotics.
Under this proposal, the government plans to start procuring from private players to resuscitate the fledgling Jan Aushadhi scheme which operates through a chain of brick-and-mortar stores and is completely dependent on the handful of public sector units for drug supply that makes it vulnerable to frequent stock-outs. A government commissioned consultancy tasked with preparing a new viable business plan for the project in 2013 estimated that…
