The generic equivalents of branded drugs being supplied through Jan Aushadhi Stores (JAS) are procured from major public sector pharma units and WHO-GMP-certified manufacturing plants, Biplab Chatterjee, CEO of Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India (BPPI), said here on Friday.
The drugs are rigorously tested at NABL-accredited laboratories and, hence, come with the assured stamp of quality, he said.
Mr. Chatterjee was here to sign an MoU with the Pharmaceutical Society of Kerala, a subsidiary of the Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC), to open 300 JAS outlets in hospitals in Kerala, under the Prime Minister’s Jan Aushadhi Yojana
He said with the GoI re-launching the PMJAY this year, the organisation had been fully restructured and the BPPI expected to resolve all the teething troubles with regard to supply chains and procurement by November so that all JAS outlets would have medicines of all therapy categories.
Launched in 2008
Though the Jan Aushadhi programme was launched in 2008, it had run into trouble later on. With the Centre giving a new impetus to the scheme, 3,000 JAS were expected to be opened across the country by March next year.
The drugs are being procured by the BPPI from pharma PSUs at half the price, so that the public can buy the generic equivalents of expensive branded cardiovascular or diabetic drugs at prices cheaper by six to eight times, Mr. Chatterjee said.
The BPPI was procuring and supplying through the JAS 452 drugs in all therapy groups and 153 surgical consumables at present.
