The government data from Jan Aushadhi medicine stores, offering affordable medicines, showed that over 33 percent of the total sale has come from diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“In last one year, diabetes constituted 17.31 percent, and 16.42 percent of the total sale of generic drugs came from cardiovascular diseases,” Ravi Dadhich, chief executive officer, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI), said.
In the generic medical outlets opened across the country under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), Dadhich said Telmisartan, Amlodipine and Metformin were among the top-selling drugs.
“The drug Telmisartan (sold at Rs 12 for 10 tablets/unit) has witnessed an average sale of over 9.3 lakh units per month. Similarly, Amlodipine (sold at Rs 5.50 for 10 tablets/unit) and Metformin Hydrochloride 500 mg (extended release) (sold at Rs 17.60 for 10 tablets/unit) were seeing an average sale of 8 lakh units per month in the generic stores,” he added.
Quality of Jan Aushadhi medicine
Dadhich said ensuring the availability of quality medicines at affordable prices was the cornerstone of the scheme adding that the government procured drugs only from the firms having WHO good manufacturing practice certifications.
“For example, the complex diabetes medicines are procured from reputed companies like Wockhardt and Biocon Biologics,” he said.
He further said that medicines procured and stored at four warehouses located in Gurugram, Surat, Chennai and Guwahati undergo analytical testing in NABL-accredited labs for quality.
“The batches of drugs are tested for some important analytical parameters like dissolution, sterility in NABL-accredited labs to confirm the standard quality of medicines,” he added.
The Jan Aushadhi Yojana chief said last year, only 12 batches out of 9208 batches tested in the NABL labs were found to be not of standard quality (NSQ).
According to the government analyst data, the NSQ percentage of medicines on the open market was 3.70 percent as per CDSCO, while NSQ of PMBI products was only 0.34 percent.
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Increasing the medicine availability
With Jan Aushadhi currently providing 1800 medicines, Dadhich said an expert committee was holding active consultations to increase the number of medicines being made available for affordable prices.
“We have fairly large number of combination drugs for patients, but the decision to increase the number of drugs is taken by an expert committee. The panel suggests the changes and accordingly the medicines are added,” he added.
An expert committee member requesting anonymity said 200 more drugs are under active consideration and may be added.
The PMBI CEO said 9304 stores of Jan Aushadhi have sold generic drugs worth 1236 crores in the last financial year.
Dadhich said 30 percent of the total sales of Jan Aushadhi Yojana was coming from the southern states.
“We currently have 9484 stores in India and we aim to touch the ten thousand mark by the year end,” he added.
With e-pharmacies expanding the base in the country, Dadhich said PMJY wasn’t looking to make generic medicine availability via online mode.
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