A Jan Aushadhi store in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 2: Jan Aushadhi stores, which opened in the state last year with the aim of providing low-priced generic drugs to the people, are unlikely to achieve their objective with medical practitioners yet to extend their full support.

With many practitioners yet to prescribe these medicines, most Jan Aushadhi stores have recorded dismal sales figures. The total sales at the district headquarter hospital in Khurda was just about Rs 2.5 lakh in the 17 months between March 6, 2010 and August 20, 2011, which is much less than the monthly sales figures of most medicine shops in the capital. Average sale at the generic medicine store in Jajpur was only around Rs 2,500 a month.

Union minister of chemical and fertilisers Srikant Jena said: “The lack of awareness among people is the main reason for the low sale of generic medicines. While the sale of generic medicines is quite good in Punjab, it is yet to take off in Orissa. Doctors should prescribe more generic medicines. Even district collectors should take steps to promote such medicines. In this regard, Dhenkanal district administration has done a good job and the sales have touched nearly Rs 18 lakh per annum.”

Though the chief medical officer of Capital Hospital, Nirmala Dei, said doctors were writing prescriptions for generic medicines, figures available with the state government show that the sale of generic medicines at the Jan Aushadhi Centre at Capital Hospital is not encouraging. While private medicine stores on the premises of the same hospital sell medicines worth between Rs 20 and Rs 30 lakh a month, the monthly sale at the Jana Aushodi counter there is only Rs 36,000.

Jena said: “We are planning to take up a massive awareness programme to try and convince people about the efficacy of generic medicines. The poor will be benefited.”

Generic medicines come very cheap. For example, 10 tablets of Accelofenac-paracitmol used to cure fever, costs just Rs 13.50. Similarly, Norfloux-tinidazole, effective in the case of an upset stomach, sells for Rs 14.45 per 10 pieces. The price of the same drugs is three times in the general medicine stores.

To ensure the supply of generic medicine, Jena said: “The Centre is planning to open another 3,000 more Jan Aushadhi centres across the country. We will convince medicine stores to set up a stall for generic medicine. The Centre held a review meeting on strengthening the supply chain of generic medicine last week.”

Health minister Prasanna Acharya said the government had asked doctors to prescribe generic medicines. However, senior government officials said that as long as it is not made mandatory for government doctors to prescribe generic medicines, the advisory notes of the government would not help.

Members of the medical fraternity themselves agree to the urgent need for patronising the Jan Aushadhi movement that began in 2008 with medicines being provided to the people at one-fourth of their market prices.

“The public sector manufacturing units of these drugs may have failed to supply the required quantity in Orissa but doctors, too, have to take a pro-active role by prescribing them. Otherwise they won’t become popular,’’ said Arabinda Mohanty, a leading paediatrician in the city.

“It is a well-known fact that branded products come with many open and hidden marketing packages for doctors, but if the state government and the Centre issue a circular to compel doctors to pass medical bills only with generic drugs on them, the doctors would be forced prescribe them. Even at the government level, there should be more initiative to promote generic medicines,’’ he argued.

At present, Jan Aushadhi stores run from 11 district headquarters hospitals (DHHs), Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar, and Red Cross Bhawan. Two others at Bhadrak and Kalahandi are in the planning stage. While land for these stores has been acquired at the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, and VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla, land is yet be made available for the purpose at MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur.

For the popularisation of the Jan Aushadhi scheme, prescriptions by professors of the medical colleges are very important. “Once medical college professors start prescribing generic medicines, the doctors at peripheral hospitals will follow. So, the authorities must set up these stores at these colleges on a war footing,’’ a leading doctor of the city said.

The availability of these medicines has become a problem. “Medicines used in day-to-day life are not available. If you come with a list of 10 medicines, you will get only one or two. I have visited the Red Cross Bhavan counter on many occasions but most of the time I have had to return disappointed,” said H. Arun Kantam, a businessman.

Secretary of the state Red Cross, the implementing agency of the Jan Aushadhi campaign, Mangala Prasad Mohanty, admitted that there was lack of cooperation from doctors in popularising the campaign. Also, supply of the medicines from the five PSUs was not adequate and timely. “We are planning a state-level workshop for 200 doctors to spread awareness. It will be held soon,’’ he added.