From July 1, you can walk up to a chemist and ask for a 'Jan Aushadhi ' brand for your medicine, with the government set to launch its own brand to sell low cost generic medicines. The Centre will procure medicines in bulk from public as well as private drug manufacturing firms and rebrand them under 'Jan Aushadhi'. These will be sold in the retail market at a competitive price, allowing consumers to buy a cheaper yet quality product from the government, official sources said. To start with, the government has identified 504 essential medicines, which include antibiotics, painkillers, vitamins and medicines used in treatment of cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes and gastroenterology diseases.
"In the first phase, we have mostly identified medicines from the top 100 drugs based on their sales. More medicines as well as medical devices will be included in the second phase,". In the…
