AFP — India moves closer to rolling out 'drugs for all' plan

India is moving ahead with ambitious plans to spend nearly $5 billion to supply free drugs to patients -- bringing the nation closer to universal health coverage, officials said on Friday....

"This starts us on the road to universal health care," K. Srinath Reddy, head of the Public Health Foundation of India, told AFP.

"It won't happen overnight -- it may be 10 or 15 years but we're on our way," said Reddy, who chaired a high-level government panel that laid out a roadmap for universal coverage....

The scheme will offer cheaper generic versions of branded drugs -- shutting out international pharmaceutical giants -- but the firms have normally looked to the burgeoning class of more affluent Indians to buy their medicines.

"Globally, governments traditionally get their drugs from generic sources so it's no surprise India is not turning to branded drugs," said an analyst at an Indian brokerage who could not be named due to his company's policy.

The 348 drugs to be provided include anesthetics, anti-AIDS, anti-psychotic, steroid, anti-ulcer, cholesterol-busting and cancer medicines. Some five percent of funds are being set aside to buy drugs off the essential list.

The government is seeking to "provide affordable healthcare to the poor and vulnerable," additional health secretary L.C. Goyal said, adding India aimed to launch "the game-changing programme from October."

Some 78 percent of spending on health comes from Indians' own pockets -- one of the highest rates globally. Also, some 72 percent of health spending goes on drugs and not treatment, said Public Health Foundation's Reddy.

The health ministry hopes by 2017, some 52 percent of Indians or some 600 million people will have access to the drug scheme.
"Universal health care is not possible without essential drugs and we thought this is one of the early and easily implementable steps," said Reddy.

Read it at Yahoo News
India moves closer to rolling out 'drugs for all' plan
by Penny MacRae | AFP