Good News to all the Cancer patients

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Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Sunday inaugurated India's first pharmacy retail store at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) "AMRIT" – Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment that will provide drugs for cancer and cardiovascular diseases at 60-90 per cent discount on market rates. AMRIT will sell 202 drugs to cure cancer and cardiovascular diseases with prices much lower than that in the open market. The government will also provide 148 cardiac implants that will be sold at 50-60 per cent discount at the pharmacy.

"Some of the prices of the AMRIT Pharmacy drugs are strikingly low such as Amrit will sell 'Docetaxel 120mg' used for chemotherapy cycle at Rs.888.75 (93 percent rebate) for one cycle, when the MRP of the injection is Rs.13,440. Similarly, Carboplatin 450 mg would be sold at Rs.1,316.25 while its MRP is Rs.2,561.57," AIIMS Director MC Misra said.

The pharmacy has been opened as a pilot project, but once it is successful, the government will open more pharmacy retail stores at other central hospitals, including Safdarjung Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, to sell drugs at hospitals at discounted rates. The government-owned HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL) will run the AMRIT pharmacy stores. HLL will dispense 195 oncology drugs, 186 cardiovascular drugs and 148 cardiac implants through AMRIT pharmacy. 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," says the managing director of HLL Dr.M.Ayyappan.

The government's move proves significant as a total of 70,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year and 2.8 million people are suffering from the disease. "A significant number of patients (nearly over 50 percent) stop visiting hospitals after two or three cycles of chemotherapy due to unaffordable costs," Misra said. "Some breast-cancer patients need targeted treatment drugs, which cost around Rs.75,000 for a course; a patient could need up to 17 courses. Similarly, a drug used to treat colon, kidney, lung and gall bladder cancer can add around Rs.8 lakh to a patient's bill which is around Rs.1 lakh a cycle," Misra added.

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia