Govt plans to open 300 Amrit pharmacies to dispense low-cost drugs

The government is planning to open 300 outlets of Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (Amrit) pharmacy in the country with the aim to reduce the expenditure incurred by common patients on treatment of cancer and heart diseases. “We are planning to open 300 outlets in the country. Amrit pharmacy reflects our strong commitment to reduce the cost of treatment for the patients,” said Minister for Health & Family Welfare, J P Nadda, who inaugurated a new Amrit outlet at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi on August 12, 2016.

Nadda added, “We are exploring the possibility of scaling up the facility and also making it accessible to larger number of people in various parts of the country. The state governments have been informed about the Amrit pharmacies and have been advised to consider opening such pharmacies.” 

The AMRIT retail outlets, which sell drugs at highly discounted rates, have a very comprehensive list of medicines that are available across range of products. Safdarjung Hospital outlet is the tenth AMRIT Pharmacies opened in the country.

Nadda said, “More than 195 drugs for treatment of cancer and 186 drugs for treatment of cardiovascular diseases are being sold through AMRIT with a discount of more than 90 percent are available to patients. More than 1.77 lakhs patients have been benefitted till date. This has resulted in saving of around Rs 13 crores out of pocket expenditure to the patients which translates into an average discount of 69 percent on MRP.”

The project has been floated in a tie-up with government-owned HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL) which is mandated to establish and run the AMRIT chain of pharmacies across the country. According to HLL, the value of drugs dispensed (till May 30, 2016) from seven outlets is around Rs 7 crores while the MRP for the same was Rs 20 crores.