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The Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) will soon open 300 retail outlets under the ‘Jan Aushadhi’ Scheme in Kerala, according to a nodal officer of the Jan Aushadhi Scheme. All these medical stores will be established at the premises of medical colleges, district hospitals and pharmacy colleges across the state.
Though KSPC is the nodal agency to run the outlets, Pharmaceutical Society of Kerala (PSK) functioning under the Council will manage and control the retail chains. For this, PSK will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India (BPPI), on September 23 at Thiruvananthapuram, in the presence of the Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, Mansukh L Mandaviya.
Currently, Kerala has 42 retail outlets of the Jan Aushadhi scheme. BPPI has further given approvals to 358 licensees to launch the scheme, totaling to 400. Out of this, 108 outlets will be established as separate chain stores under the management of a registered society called Society for Integrated Growth of the Nation (SIGN) based at Ernakulam. Six outlets are managed by the NGO, Bharath Sevak Samaj. The remaining 286 units are under individual controls and charitable societies. This shows that all the approved Jan Aushadhi outlets in Kerala are under private sector.
Regarding procurement and supply of medicines to the Jan Aushadhi stores, S Chandrasekharan Pillai, nodal officer of BPPI, said for the supply of generic medicines, BPPI will reach an agreement with the public sector manufacturing companies like IDPL; Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Rajasthan Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals; and Hindustan Antibiotics.
When asked about utilizing the potential of Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, he said BPPI will consider it positively, but in the initial stage it will depend on more national PSUs.
Speaking to Pharmabiz, KSPC president B Rajan said that the signing of MoU will be held at Hotel Muscat on the 23rd of this month by the chairman of the PSK, Dr K G Revikumar, and the CEO of BPPI, Dr Biplap Chatterjee. He further said that all the three hundred outlets will be run by registered pharmacists only as this is an opportunity for the unemployed registered pharmacists to get into a profession.
With the opening of fresh 300 outlets under pharmacy council, the total number of Jan Aushadhi stores in Kerala will rise to 700. Jan Aushadhi stores are set up in separate pharmacies with adequate infrastructure facilities mandated by the Department of Pharmaceuticals. No existing pharmacy can start it in an attached facility.
Jan Aushadhi medicines are those medicines which are not branded but have the same efficacy as that of their branded and expensive counterparts.
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