The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s largest non-governmen organisation of doctors, launched its first-ever Jan Aushadhi Medical Store at IP Estate — its headquarters — on Friday.
The store, which will offer over 118 commonly used drugs in their generic forms at 80-90 per cent lesser cost than its market price, was inaugurated by Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir.
The Minister noted that “supplying quality drugs at affordable prices can reduce the monthly expenditure of a common man and substantially reduce his financial burden”.
All the medicines being offered at the IMA Jan Aushadhi Medical Store have been approved by the Jan Aushadhi Department and quality controlled by the Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India.
The store will remain open from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm on all working days of the week. A full-time qualified pharmacist will not only dispense drugs at the store but also counsel patients about the drug-drug and drug-food interactions and report adverse events.
IMA official Dr. K.K. Aggarwal said: “With the existence of a large gap in the socio-economic set up of our country and the ever-increasing disease prevalence due to lifestyle factors; affordable healthcare for all is an urgent need and necessity.”
The IMA Jan Aushadhi Medical Store, the doctors hope, will help in drastically bringing down the monthly amount spent by families on essential life-saving drugs such as painkillers, medicines for fever and medicines to control diabetes, amongst others.
“Once successful, all State Branches of IMA will be requested to open similar centres on their premises. General practitioners across the NCR will also be requested to buy drugs from IMA Centre and dispense it to their patients,” added Dr. Aggarwal.
In a joint statement, Sudhansh Pant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Dr. G.N. Singh, Drugs Controller General India and Injeti Srinivas, Chairman, National Pharmaceu- tical Pricing Authority, said: “The IMA Jan Aushadhi Medical Store will go a long way in reducing the healthcare burden of our country. Affordable and accessible healthcare for all is of utmost importance to the Indian Government and associated policy-makers.”
The store will offer over 118 drugs at a 10-20% lesser price compared to the market price
