Why in news?

The Janaushadhi scheme has helped citizens to save around Rs 20,000 Cr on their medicine bills in the last 9 years.

An overview of the news

• Over the past nine years, the number of Janaushadhi Kendras has increased significantly, growing by 100 times.
• The sales of Janaushadhi Kendras have also experienced a remarkable increase, surpassing 150 times.
• The government has set a target to further expand the number of Janaushadhi Kendras to 10,000 by the end of the current year.
• Currently, the country has over 9,400 functional Janaushadhi Kendras, which sell medications at discounted rates ranging from 50 to 90 percent compared to branded medicines.
• The product range of the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana includes 1,800 drugs and 285 surgical equipment options.

About Jan Aushadhi Yojana

• The Jan Aushadhi scheme was started by the UPA government in 2008.
• The scheme was relaunched in the year 2015 by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
• This campaign was started across the country by selling generic medicines through “Jan Aushadhi Medical Stores”.
• In 2015, the name of ‘Jan Aushadhi Yojana’ was changed to ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana’ (PMJAY), but in November 2016 it was changed to “Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Yojana”.
• The Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Yojana (PMBJP) scheme was launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India, with the objective of making quality generic medicines available to all at affordable prices.

Features 

• PMBJK provides generic medicines at a much lesser price. The potency of these medicines is the same as that of expensive branded medicines available in the open market.
• The Janaushadhi scheme requires that at least one Janaushadhi Store be set up in each District of the country
• The drugs sold at the Kendras are 50% to 90% cheaper than their branded counterparts.

Objectives 

• Ensure access to quality medicines for all the section of the population especially for the poor people and the deprived ones.
• Create awareness about generic medicines through education and publicity to counter the perception that quality is synonymous with high price.
• Generate employment by engaging individual entrepreneurs in opening of PMBJP Kendras.
• Extend coverage of quality generic medicines so as to reduce the out of pocket expenditure on medicines and thereby redefine the unit cost of treatment per person.

Read also:- Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra