AIIMS gets affordable pharmacy for cancer drugs

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday will open the country’s first retail facility to sell drugs for cancer and cardiovascular diseases at discounted rates.

Union health and family welfare minister JP Nadda will launch AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment)- a retail Pharmacy, on Sunday morning. The pharmacy will not only have cancer drugs but also implants for heart patients available at discounted rates for AIIMS patients.

However, one would be required to show original prescription from AIIMS’ doctors to get the medicines and devices.

“To begin with, HLL will dispense 195 oncology drugs, 186 cardiovascular drugs and 148 cardiac implants through AMRIT pharmacy,” HLL chairman and managing director Dr M Ayyappan.

“Initially, the pharmacy will retail cancer drugs. By this month-end, it will commence the dispensing of cardiovascular drugs and implants in line with the cancer drugs,” he added. Based on the response at the AIIMS outlet, this initiative will be taken to other central government hospitals and regional cancer centres.

Some of the prices of the AMRIT Pharmacy drugs are strikingly low. For example, AMRIT will sell ‘Docetaxel 120mg’ used for chemotherapy cycle at `888.75 (93% rebate) for one cycle, when the MRP of the injection is `13,440. Similarly, Caboplatin 450 mg would be sold at `1316.25 while its MRP is at `2,561.57.

The government’s move comes amid disturbing statistics that peg Indians diagnosed with cancer at 700,00 every year. An official report says 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.