Last Updated on August 20, 2020 by The Health Master
The Drugs Control Administration (DCA) in Kerala is planning to initiate departmental action against some of the retail chain pharmacies in the state for misusing the name, ‘Jan Aushadhi’ for their business purpose as it is the brand name of the government of India sponsored generic medicines through the scheme Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojna (PMBJP), a scheme to supply quality medicines at reasonable prices.
According to PI John, the drugs controller of Kerala, a group of retailers under a cooperative set up has formed a trade name, JAS Pharma, and applied for drug licences to run retail outlets. The department issued licences with strict instructions that do not permit them to use the brand name of the central government sponsored medical stores, Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras (PMBJK) which was earlier known as ‘Jan Aushadhi Stores’ (JAS).
Since the term ‘Jan Aushadhi’ has become popular among people in the country in a period of ten years, some retailers wanted to misuse the trade name for their profit motive which the department finds as unethical. The DCA has found that in the name-boards of some of the JAS Pharma stores in Kottayam and Ernakulam districts, the shop owners have written the expansion of JAS as Jan Aushadhi Stores, within brackets.
“We cannot cancel the licences of the stores as they have written JAS Pharma on the top of the board, but within brackets they have written Jan Aushadhi that they cannot. The drug inspectors in respective areas have been asked to check the boards and report to my office. Action will be taken according to their reports.
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However, the licensees can use the name JAS Pharma wherein the ‘S’ stands for ‘Sangh’, it does not denote ‘Store’. The expansion of JAS they have entered on the application is Jan Aushadhi Sangh, but licences were issued on the name JAS Pharma only. They cannot use the expansion Jan Aushadhi, which is a standing condition,” said John, the DC.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Kumar Singh, nodal officer for PMBJP said JAS Pharma Group is a chain pharmacy group working on the lines of a cooperative retail chain pharmacy originated in Madhya Pradesh. Since JAS is a popular brand of Jan Aushadhi medical shops of the BPPI, the people are getting confused and they are misguided by it. He said the strips of the medicines supplied by BPPI through PMBJP carry the logo of PMBJP and requested the consumers to check the logo before they purchase medicines from Jan Aushadhi stores.
Apart from customers, new entrepreneurs are also confusing with the trade name, JAS. Many of the Kerala expatriates from foreign countries want to open Jan Aushadhi outlets, but they do not know which is genuine and which is fake. Further, he alleged that the owners of the JAS Pharma are canvassing the BPPI sponsored Jan Aushadhi Stores (PMBJKs) to stop their affiliation with BPPI and want them to join JAS Pharma.
Sandeep said BPPI has given direction to him to cancel the approval agreement of those shops that enter into any kind of business deal with JAS Pharma Group. BPPI will shortly do awareness programs among the people to maintain the identity of PMBJKs and the quality of the products.
lleppy based retailer Sanal Kumar who was a supporter of Central government’s Jan Aushadhi project said JAS Pharma was launched in Kerala by two previous officers of the BPPI, a nodal officer and one zonal manager. Later they were expelled from service by BPPI for cheating the organization and citing the model of the government project for their private supply chain business. However hard they worked to bring up their cooperative project in Kerala, it failed miserably as they could start only three shops.
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