- The maximum retail prices of Jan Aushadhi medicines are about 50% to 80% cheaper than those of leading ‘Branded’ medicines
- Need to investigate why there are still not even 20000 JA Shops in India, a Country of over 650000 villages when JA medicines are costing so less ?
- What is difference between Generic Medicines and Branded Generic Medicines ?
Daya Sagar
It was during the times when Sh. Ram Vilas Paswan was the Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers that prices of the allopathic medicines , particularly those that ( technical grade materials) had become free from any patent / proprietary right and were commonly addressed as ‘generic medicines’/’BRANDED GENERIC ( some companies were manufacturing these medicines although under a brand name but were marketing through a separate division / department ) attracted the attention of the Minister.
Some investigative study was got conducted and it was found that there was wide range of difference in MRP tags of different companies for medicines made out of the same technical grade material / basic chemical and in some cases the MRP was VERY highly inflated. It was decided by the Ministry to get such medicines manufactured by the Public Sector Pharmaceutical Companies and sell the same under the chemical name / generic name with genuinely marked MRP which would reasonably reduce the cost burden on the common man as well as the government hospitals in India and it was also anticipated that even some private manufacturers who may hence face pressure may also reduce / ‘Correct’ their MRPs. It was also opined that any private manufacturer who desired to market the medicines under such programme of government would also be taken in for marketing through the channels nominated by government/ outlets or could start manufacturing for the Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India – BPPI (now PMDBI – Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India ). As was also anticipated in 2008 some private Pharma companies are also presently manufacturing for PMDBI like 1.Savi Health Science, Lucknow-226010; Savi Health Science EAST Sikkim 737132; Lokbeta Phamaceuticals ltd , Thane (W) 400406 Maharashtra; Nirmal Lifestyle Mumbai 400080;Ravian Life Sciences Pvt Ltd SIDCUL, Haridwar 249403; Ravenbhel Healthcare Pvt. Ltd and like.
Department of Pharmaceuticals ( Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers ) had five central public sector undertakings under its administrative control ie (a) Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (IDPL), Gurugram, Haryana (b) Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, Pimpri, Pune, Maharashtra (c) Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bangalore, Karnataka (d) Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal, and (e) Rajasthan Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, Jaipur, Rajasthan*; and they as agroup were named as Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI ) in 2008 and were made the implementing agency for such medicines to be sold under Jan Aushadhi Scheme in 2008 & in November first such sale store was started in Amritsar (Concerned Department May Kindly Correct Me For Error In Time / Reference ) and the same BPPI is presently known as Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India ( PMBI) and is the implementing agency for Pradhan Mantri Bhartiye Janaushadhi Pariyojna – PMBJP ( earlier Jan Aushadhi Scheme -2008, PMJAY-Sept 2015 , PMBJP -Dec 2016) of Department of Pharmaceuticals , Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers , GOI for making available the medicines (presently generic) to people in India under generic name labelled with genuine / genuinely priced MRP tag. As per the report 2024-25 of Department of Pharmaceuticals the growth of JA Kendras ( shops / retail outlets has been 2008-09 ( 4 ) 2014-15 ( 80 ) 2015-16 ( 269 ) 2016-17 (1080 ) 2017-18 ( 3306 ) 2023-24 ( 11261 ) 30-11-2024 (14320) and for 80 stores in 2014-15 with only 300 items in product basket total sales were just Rs. 7.45 Cr and the JA Kendras rising to 14320+ by 30-11-2024 with 2347 items in basket the total sales were still only Rs.1255 cr .
India is globally the largest supplier of generic drugs, accounting for about 20 percent of the global supply. It manufactures about 60,000 generic brands, across 60 therapeutic categories. Because of low price coupled with quality, Indian medicines are preferred worldwide, thereby earning the country the epithet “pharmacy of the world.To know the level of business that could be available to the PMBJP Jan Aushadhi Kendras let us have some hints from the Annual report 2024-25 of the Department of Pharmaceuticals Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers GOI mentions that (i) “The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s third largest by volume and the 14th largest by value (ii) The total annual turnover of pharmaceuticals at current prices was 4,17,345 crore for financial year (FY) 2023-24 and has grown at an average of 10.08 percent over five year (iii) In FY 2023-24, the total value of pharmaceuticals exported was Rs.2,19,439 Cr at current prices while that of pharmaceuticals imports was Rs. 58,440 crore ( bulk drugs, drug intermediates, drug formulations and biologicals). (iv) India is one of the fastest growing markets in the global medical devices (v) India is the fourth largest medical device market in Asia, after Japan, China and South Korea, and is among the top 20 global medical device markets in the world and India has also started exporting ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPES), diagnostic kits, surgical gloves, coronary stents, radio-imaging equipment, body implants, etc. The report does not give the total annual turnover of Medical devices industry in India .
On the basis of the turnover of pharmaceutical industry for FY-2023-24 being Rs 4,17,345 Cr ( information for 2025-26/ 2024-25 could not be got ) &out of which Rs.219439 Cr was exported turnover of pharma factories was from Indian trade was Rs1,97,906 Cr. Taking amargin of say just 25 % over the producer price minimum billing to the distributor can be assumed as Rs..197906×1.25 = Rs.2,47,382 Cr. Going be the press releases /advertisements prices of JanAushadhi medicines are 50% to 80% less than MRP lebel of branded generic medicines in the Indian market and taking price of JA as just 50% less than MRP of ‘branded generic’ the medicine potential on the basis of ‘MRP labelled’ under prevailing trading practices the Indian market can be assumed as Rs.2,47,382 x2 = Rs.4,94,764 Cr. say Rs.5 Lakh Cr. Going by the disclosures by official press releases / statements by government ministries the Indian citizens are presently saving about 4 times money the money paid for JA medicines in comparison to what they would have spent for purchasing ‘branded generic’ @ MRP on the label so by that standard the total potential for medicines would be around INR 8 Lakh Cr MRP label base . Incase the level of generic / branded generic market / production is taken as even 90% even then MRP basis unexploited market of generic medicines of over Rs. 7.2 Lakh Cr could be imagined. Keeping in view that the Jan Aushadhi Kendra sales on MRP basis are still not even Rs. 2000 Cr per year & there are not even 20000 shops (17990 as on 31-12-2025) even when there are 2110 medicines in the basket that could cover requirement of over 95 % of the ailments / ailing populationin in a country of over 650000 villages where majority of population depends on government hospitals / government doctors (serving or retired) there is very disappointing progress made in 17 years which is well reflected from (i) PTI press release of August 02 , 2024 had(still ) said Jan Aushadhi medicines are available at the centers at a discounted price ,medicines sales worth Rs 6,975 crore in MRP terms -.Medicines and medical devices sold at affordable prices under the Prime Minister Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana have helped people save more than Rs28,000 crore so far (ii) Press Release PIB: 06 JAN 2026 Delhi : In 2024-25, PMBI registered sales of Rs2022.47 crore which led to savings of approximately Rs8000 crore to the citizens. In the current financial year 2025-26, till 30.11.2025, PMBI has made sales of Rs1409.32 crore, which has led to savings of approximately Rs5637 crore to the citizens.
Imagine how large market was left free for the private trade to fleece the consumers in terms of branded generic medicines where for conventional MRP base Market of 7 Lakh Cr the genuine MRP base market could have been reduced to cost less than Rs. 2 Lakh Cr only going by the proportion of savings as had been expressed in the press releases referred here in above.
To be continued
(The writer is Sr Journalist, social activist and analyst J&K affairs