Doctors should prescribe generic medicine to help poor patients, says Javadekar

New Delhi [India], March 7 : On the occasion of 3rd Jan Aushadhi Diwas, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar encouraged the use of generic medicine and said doctors should prescribe it to help poor people except for complicated disease.
"Doctors should prescribe generic medicines to help poor people. Except for complicated diseases where there is a need for specific formulas, for other ailments the use of generic medicine should be encouraged," said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Minister while speaking at the event in Pune.
According to a press statement from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Javadekar also announced to start a campaign for doctors to popularise the use of generic medicine in the country. He visited a Pradhanmantri Bhartiya Jan Aushdhi Kendra in Kothrud, Pune, and attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi's live telecast interaction from Shillong.
While interacting with the doctors and beneficiaries at the center, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said: "Prime Minister has launched world's biggest Health Insurance scheme which is helping 50 crore Indians. The cost of medicines at these Jan Aushadhi stores is 60 to 70 per cent cheaper than market price. The prices of over 500 medicines have been reduced."
He further said that even major operations like heart stent and knee replacement can be done at much lesser cost under this scheme. This scheme has reduced the cost of medicines so much that people call it Modi's shop of cheap medicines.
"The country has 50,000 wellness centres now which provide facilities like Yoga and exercise training. soon there will be 1.5 lakh such centres," he added while pointing out that, due to Prime Minister's vision these generic medicines are now available in various places and people are taking advantage of it.