Driven by expanding pharmacies and new product launches, the government’s affordable generic medicines scheme — Jan Aushadhi — has recorded a turnover of over Rs 1,100 crore, News18.com has learnt.
The scheme was started by the UPA government as the Jan Aushadhi Yojana in November 2008. But more than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2015, the scheme was rebranded and relaunched as the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP).
Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister and Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers, has been credited with having turned an “ailing” project into a highly productive one.
When Mandaviya took charge (of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers which executes the scheme via the Department of Pharmaceuticals) in 2016-17, sales under the scheme were just Rs 12 crore in 2015-16.
“The scheme, till last month has registered sales of Rs 1,100 crore. We are hoping to touch Rs 1,200 crore by the end of this ongoing financial year,” Ravi Dadhich, chief executive officer, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI) — the government arm that executes the scheme –, told News18.com.
From Rs 12 crore to Rs 1,200 crore, the scheme has grown over 120 times in the last eight years.
The scheme has “overachieved” its targets, Dadhich said, adding that the target for this year was to achieve a revenue of Rs 775 crore, and Rs 1,000 crore for the next year.
“In the last financial year, we posted a turnover of Rs 893 crore. The annual growth rate of the scheme is more than 30%,” he added.
The turnover has increased mainly because setting up of more pharmacy outlets called ‘kendras’ under the scheme and launching more than 300 products during the ongoing fiscal.
He further stressed anti-diabetic, cardiovascular and anti-infectives are the top-selling therapeutic areas under which most medicines are sold. “Also, we immediately launched the medicines, which came off patents recently,” he said, while sharing the example of the popular anti-diabetic drug Sitagliptin, which lost its patent in July 2022. The medicine is available at Rs 65 at the kendras in comparison to an average price of Rs 150 for other brands.
So far, the scheme has opened 9,100 outlets of the target of 9,300. PMBI has conducted a detailed analysis of opening the outlets in the districts with “lesser representations” of the scheme.
It has also identified 3,500 places for the opening of stores at block levels.
Overall, by now, the scheme has introduced 8,100 medicines apart from introducing 280 surgical devices and nutraceuticals.
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