India's drug minister said there was a misconception in the nation--including in its media--that prices of pharmaceuticals had skyrocketed recently. Ananth Kumar noted that 350 additional drugs had been brought under price controls in the past 10 months and other plans are already driving down costs.
He said in an interview that 98 Jan Aushadhi centers already are open to sell generic lifesaving drugs and work is underway to have 3,000 centers open in a few years. In addition, Kumar said, the government is providing incentives to attract more drug makers to the bulk-drug business to reduce reliance on imports.
In the interview with DeshGujarat, Kumar said he plans to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to change the ministry's name to Chemical, Fertilizer and Pharma to better reflect the major work it is doing in making medicines available.
- here's the story from DeshGujarat