The State may soon see supply of generic medicines to patients at all the government-run hospitals thanks to the initiative taken by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation under the Union Health Ministry.
The State has entered into an agreement with a public sector company for supply of generic medicine in all the general and teaching hospitals in addition to 12 district hospitals, 130 area hospitals and close to 200 community health centres. Though the MoU was signed more than a year ago, no action had been initiated on it due to procedural aspects, including the reorganisation of the districts.
Health department officials are confident that work on ensuring supply of generic medicines at all the government institutions is expected to gather momentum as the Drug Controller-General of India has asked the State governments to direct all the outlets licensed to sell drugs to provide for a separate rack/shelf reserved exclusively for stocking generic medicines on their respective premises.
The Drugs Controller-General, in a communication issued on Tuesday, asked the States to take steps to see that generic medicines are separated from other medicines so that they are visible to consumers. “The agreement with public sector HLL Lifecare is in place and we are hopeful that generics will be positioned in these institutions very soon,” a senior official told The Hindu .
The government will take up the exercise of providing the required space and other infrastructure like power and water supply to the outlets that would be set up by the HLL Lifecare as part of the MoU. The agency is mandated to procure generic medicines and be sell.
