Ecuador, Panama and Nigeria are among countries that are in talks with India to make affordable generic medicines available to their citizens through a scheme similar to the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP).
Health and allied services have become an important part of India’s soft power projection, as seen in a recent Cabinet decision to establish a nursing health cadre in India to provide quality treatment and supply nurses to other countries.
India is one of the largest suppliers of low-cost generic medicines, consumables and surgical items to countries around the world.
The talks being led by officials of the Department of Pharmaceuticals and Union health and family welfare ministry are aimed at helping these three countries set up Jan Aushadhi Kendras, similar to those in India.
“Recently, the technical committee held the first meeting to explore the possibilities to implement to implement a model similar to Jan Aushadhi in Panama by procuring medicines from India,” said an official aware of the matter.
“Another meeting was held with the ambassador of Ecuador to discuss ways and means with respect to sourcing more medicines by Ecuador from India and talks were also held about adoption of PMBJP,” added the official.
India is the largest supplier of generic drugs to the world and exported $19.02 billion worth of generics in FY22.
PMBJP was launched by the department of pharmaceuticals in 2008 with the objective of making quality generic medicines available at affordable prices to the people.
Medicines available under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana are priced 50-90% less than branded medicines.
“Nigeria is also interested in Jan Aushadhi scheme and there are many other nations who participated in G20 meeting that want to replicate the scheme. During G20 meetings held in April in Goa, many of the participating nations visited Jan Aushadhi stores to see them functioning,” said a second official.
Queries emailed to the department of pharmaceuticals, ministry of health and the missions of Ecuador, Panama and Nigeria remained unanswered.
Under this scheme, there are already more than 9,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras functional across the country.
The Union government has set a target to increase the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras to 10,000 by March 2024.
The product basket of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana comprises 1,759 medicines and 280 surgical devices covering all major therapeutic groups.
