Industry should domestically manufacture off-patent medicines under Atmanirbhar Bharat: Mansukh Mandaviya

New Delhi [India], August 12 (ANI): A partnership between the government and industry to make healthcare accessible and affordable is important and a healthy population brings both economic development and prosperity to all, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday.
Participating in a session on Ensuring Affordable, Accessible Health for All at the CII Annual Meeting 2021 here, the minister said that under Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the industry should consider domestically manufacturing medicines and vaccines where the foreign patent is expiring and medicines would soon become off-patent.
The PLI scheme announced by the government would help the domestic industry in this endeavour. The government has also made announcements such as the medical devices park, pharma park to help the industry become competitive.
He assured the industry of all possible support to improve health infrastructure and sought inputs to improve ease of doing business and competitiveness of this sector.
The minister lauded the private sector for working in tandem with the government to meet the shortage of healthcare facilities such as oxygen, injections, medicines during the pandemic.
Many companies repurposed their facilities to produce masks, PPEs, and ventilators, he said.
The government has also come forward with initiatives for providing affordable healthcare solutions such as opening up of Jan Aushadhi stores for provision of generic medicines at cost- effective rates, helping the poor.
The number of such stores has gone up to 8,000 from 103 in 2016 while the number of medicines available at these stores has also increased. It is a direct end to end chain model with no middlemen.
The government plans to improve the share of these stores in the future. The private sector is also participating in this initiative by submitting tenders, the Minister said.
Referring to the Aayushman Bharat Mission, the Minister said around 2 crore families have benefitted from the initiative.
He said the the government is promoting digitization. It has relaxed regulations to allow telemedicine and has also provided an e platform or eSanjeevani which provides a virtual platform for doctor consultations.
Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII Healthcare Council and Chairman, Medanta Medicity, said that use of new technology and substitution technology for medicines made in India would reduce the cost of healthcare.
Suneeta Reddy, Co-Chairperson, CII Healthcare Council and Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, underscored the importance of public- private partnership in areas of technology like telemedicine.
The CII-BCG Report on 'Health Insurance Vision 2025 - Insuring Lives of Billion Indians' was presented to the Minister. The report sets a bold vision of insuring health of billion Indians by 2025 and lays out key imperatives. (ANI)