What is Jan Aushadhi Initiative ?
• Central government will procure medicines in bulk from public as well as private drug manufacturing firms . It will be sold under the brand ‘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.
• Government has identified 504 essential medicines, which include antibiotics, painkillers, vitamins and medicines used in treatment of cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes and gastroenterology diseases. Medicines have been identified from the top 100 drugs based on their sales.
Who will implement the project ?
• The Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India ( BPPI ), the nodal agency under the Department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) will implement this project.
Effect on People ?
• Consumers are often unable to make an informed choice for purchasing medicines. They rely on the doctor’s prescription or on chemists. In a bid to provide relief to people who have to spent a huge amount on costly branded medicines available in the market the government is will launch its own Jan Aushadhi brand of medicines that will be comparatively cheaper than the medicines generally prescribed by the doctors.
• The middle class people and poor people certainly will get the benefit of it by getting cheaper medicines. It will reduce the out of pocket expenditure they have to incur on health services.
Effect on Pharmaceutical Companies ?
• It is aimed at encouraging bulk drug manufacturing and thus reduce dependence on imports. For this, setting up of clusters for small and medium-sized pharma companies has been suggested.
• Participation will mainly come from small-scale enterprises. Keeping a strict check on quality will be a major challenge to the government. Maintaining a transparent and efficient supply chain to distribute the products at such a large-scale seamlessly will also pose a challenge.
• Large pharma companies might not be keen to participate in this as it would disturb their existing cost structure and also directly cannibalise their products in the retail market. 
Precautions that need to be taken
• Enforcement of procurement norms and sampling to ensure quality control.
• Medicines need to be properly standardised and there should be no impurity . Effort should be to keep the quality at par with the international standard. Recall the Bilaspur sterilization incident. The owner of that particular Pharmaceutical factory was an MLA, and because of some impurity in the medicines, 13 lives were lost. And therefore the quality control is the need of the hour.
What are Jan Aushadhi stores ?
• Jan Aushadhi is a campaign launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals in 2008, in association with Central Pharma Public Sector Undertakings, to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses. Jan Aushadhi stores have been set up to provide generic drugs, which are available at lesser prices but are equivalent in quality and efficacy as expensive branded drugs.
• State Government has to provide space in Government Hospital premises for the running of the outlets- Jan aushadhi stores. The State Government has to ensure prescription of unbranded generic medicines by the Government doctors. The Jan Aushadhi Programme is accordingly a self sustaining business model not dependent on government subsidies or assistance. It is run on the principle of “Not for Profits but with Minimal Profits”.
• Under the present initiative, government plans to launch “Jan Aushadhi Brand” of drugs, that will be available at all stores.
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