Government generic drug stores helped save 40% of medical bills for households: study
New Delhi: The government’s generic drug stores in Assam and Rajasthan have helped households save 40% on medicines, according to a study of nearly 500 people from the two states.
The study showed that two thirds of Jan Aushadhi consumers belonged to well-off households and in the case of more than half of Jan Aushadhi consumers, at least one family member is a graduate.
The Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) commonly known as Jan Aushadhi scheme is led by the department of pharmaceuticals. The drugs sold at Jan Aushadhi Kendras are generic medicines that are 50-80% cheaper than branded ones, according to the central government.
The research was conducted by the Centre for Media Studies, a non-government research think tank funded by Azim Premji University.
A sample of 496 households from the two states—Assam (districts Kamrup Metropolitan and Hailakandi) and Rajasthan (Churu and Jhunjhunu)—comprising 331 PMBJP-beneficiary households and 165 non-PMBJP households, were covered.
“63% of PMBJP-households belonged to high SLI and in more than half of PMBJP households have at least a member who is graduate or more-suggesting a correlation between education, SLI and PMBJP beneficiaries” said
“Major diseases for which medicines were purchased from PMBJP are diabetes, blood pressure and ulcer/gastric related ailments. Around 47.6% households purchased blood pressure medicines, followed by 40.5% households bought diabetes, 26.8% people purchased medicines related to ulcer/gastric and13.5% households bought cardiovascular drugs,” noted the study.
Savings reported
“On an average, PMBJP- households reported a savings of around ₹550 per month due to purchase of medicines from Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Around 1/4th of these households are saving more than Rs1,000 per month, constituting about 3% of their household income.”
“The Standard of Living Index is based on the different aspects we looked into such as number of assets in the family, educational qualification etc to that how we categorized the family into socio-economically. The focus of Jan Kendras is to benefit economically poor families who can’t purchase expensive medicines from general chemists’ shop. We randomly selected the families and later on administrating the survey and after analyzing the data we found that the families have better qualifications and they belong to high standard of living index or income group having around ₹30,000 and assets they own,” said Alok Srivastava, Director, CMS Social and principal investigator of the study.
“The savings, approximate 41% due to purchase of medicines from Jan Aushadhi Kendras has helped PMBJP-households to plan and improve their socio-economic status.
The purposes for which the households utilized their savings included getting nutritious food for family members (51%), avail better health facilities/treatment (25%), education 14% and house maintenance/assets (6%) and other purposes (3%), the study noted.
“The study shows that there is a lot of traction in the middle-income group families towards Jan Aushadhi medicines as they are able to reduce out-of-pocket-expenditure, particularly for chronic diseases and related medicines,” said Ravi Dadhich, CEO, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau.
For fiscal year 2025-26, the Union government has approved an allocation of ₹335.50 crore for the implementation of the Jan Aushadhi scheme. The government has set a target of opening 25,000 Kendras by March 2027.
Author Credits: Priyanka Sharma, Mint
