Consultative Committee meeting of Department of Pharmaceuticals held

Bengaluru, December 11, 2015:The Consultative Committee meeting of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was held in New Delhi today. The subject for today’s meeting were (i) National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research; and (ii) Jan Aushadhi Scheme. The Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Ananth Kumar chaired the meeting. It was attended by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, and Shri Ramnath Thakur, Ms. Kahkashan Parween, Shri R. Gopalakrishnan, Shri B. Sreeramulu, Shri Virendra Singh, Shri Bansilal Mahto, all hon’ble MPs. The officers of the Department of Pharmaceuticals and NIPERs were also present in the meeting

The members were apprised about the status of NIPERs. It was informed that 11 NIPERs have been sanctioned by the Government out of which 7 are functional. Madurai NIPER will start its classes from the next academic year.

Regarding Jan Aushadhi Scheme, it was informed that the Scheme was started in 2008 but it could not be a success because of certain flaws in the scheme. Now the Scheme is being revised to increase the number of medicines and also to allow the shops to sell surgical and consumable items. The supply chain for the scheme is being strengthened and efforts are on to enter into agreements with various State Government, NGO’s and charitable institutions so that more shops could be opened to sell the generic medicines to the people at reasonable prices.