The CEOs of the central drug procurement agencies of five State governments – Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala – who met in the capital on Wednesday decided to form an alliance to formulate common policies for drug procurement and sharing of data and best practices, so as to bring down the out-of-pocket expenditure on drugs and make drugs more accessible to the common man.
The five States have signed a ‘Thiruvananthapuram declaration,’ affirming their commitment to making drugs affordable to the common man and pledging to share their resources and capacities to make this possible.
Addressing a press conference here at the end of the meeting, managing director of the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Biju Prabhakar said this was the first ever attempt by States to put up a united front to tackle the issue of rising drug prices and drug shortage in the country.
Inter-State MoUs will be signed between the States for sharing of knowledge and skills, exchange of drugs during exigencies, and capacity building, so as “to curb the unethical practices of non-State players who often form cartels to thwart government’s attempts to provide drugs at cheaper rates to the common man,” he added.
“We are all facing drug shortages, sometimes real and sometimes artificial. We are trying to work out uniform policies for drug procurement and sharing of best practices — quality control, factory inspections of manufacturers, logistics, inventory management, database, and IT solutions – so that we can help out each other during emergencies. We are trying to draw up a reciprocation system by which we can exchange drugs in the event of a sudden shortage,” Mr. Prabhakar said.
Managing director of Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Samit Sharma said the central drug procurement agencies of States had to stand together to beat unethical and corrupt practices in the sector which have made life-saving drugs unaffordable to those who most need it.
“Drugs are being sold in the open market at prices which are sometimes 10 or 50 times higher than the actual cost of manufacture. All the States are streamlining their drug procurement policies so that we can get major pharma companies to supply their branded generic drugs to us at much lower costs, which we can supply free of cost to the poor,” Dr. Sharma said.
He said that a massive exercise had to be launched in generating awareness and trust among the doctors about generic drugs and to give them the confidence that the generics were in no way different from branded drugs.
The next conclave of the CEOs will be held in Rajasthan in October, when more States were expected to join the alliance. Director of the Central Medical Store Organisation of Gujarat S.C Pant, General Manager of TN Medical Services Corporation K. Anandhan, and M. Shivarudraswamy, Chief Drugs Supervisor of the Karnataka Drug Logistics and Warehousing Society, represented the States.
