The Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, JP Nadda  inaugurated the Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) outlet at AIIMs. The aim is to reduce the expenditure incurred by patients on treatment of cancer and heart diseases. The retail outlet will sell drugs for the two ailments at highly discounted rates at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to begin with. AMRIT will be launched in all Central Govt hospitals soon.

What’s the use for the People?

The AMRIT pharmacy would be selling 202 cancer and 186 cardio-vascular drugs, and 148 types of cardiac implants at very affordable prices. Patients can buy medicines and implants at 50 to 60 percent cheaper prices than the open market from AMRIT outlet in AIIMS. The project has been floated in a tie-up with government-owned HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL) which is deputed to establish and run the AMRIT chain of pharmacies across the country.

What is GOI’s Plan?

Initially, AMRIT pharmacy will retail cancer drugs, based on authentic prescriptions from doctors. By this month-end, cardiovascular drugs will be dispensed in line with medicines sold for cancer. Based on the outcome of the AIIMS outlet, this initiative will be taken to other central government hospitals and Regional Cancer Centres.

Facts You should Know

The government’s move comes amid statistics that peg Indians diagnosed with cancer at 700,000 every year. About 2.8 million people have cancer at any point of time and half a million die of the disease each year.

The annual figure of women being diagnosed with breast cancer in India is 145,000, according to the World Health Organisation. A significant number of patients (nearly over 50 per cent) stop visiting hospitals after two or three cycles of chemotherapy due to unaffordable costs.

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