Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News
  • Published:

Troubles beset 'Jan Aushadhi' plan to broaden access to generics

Nature Medicine volume 16, page 350 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

In November 2008, the Indian government kicked off an ambitious project when it opened the first not-for-profit medicine shop, at Amritsar in Punjab, selling only generic drugs, with no branded versions on the shelves. The opening was part of a grand plan to establish a countrywide chain of such 'Jan Aushadhi', a Hindi term that translates as 'people's drug stores'. But several speakers at a national seminar on pharmaceutical Policy held in Kolkata in February said this plan to bring quality medicines at affordable price has hit roadblocks.

At the recent meeting, a few people went so far as to speculate that corrupt officials and foreign-owned multinational corporations—whose products account for more than a quarter of India's 392 billion rupees ($8.7 billion) drug sales by some estimates—are conspiring to scuttle the scheme. “Of course [the multinationals] are trying their best to protect their market share,” Ramesh Jha, spokesman for Department of Pharmaceuticals, which is implementing the Jan Aushadhi program, told Nature Medicine. “But our scheme is on track.”

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bangalore, India

    Killugudi Jayaraman

Authors
  1. Killugudi Jayaraman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jayaraman, K. Troubles beset 'Jan Aushadhi' plan to broaden access to generics. Nat Med 16, 350 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0410-350a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0410-350a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing