Assam: Guwahati Medical College gets its first Amrit pharmacy

Guwahati: The (Amrit) Pharmacy for Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatments, opened at the Guwahati Medical College on Wednesday. It is the first of its kind in the state.

The Union Health Minister, JP Nadda, inaugurated the store, which will provide patients life-saving drugs, at heavily discounted rates. Oncology and cardiovascular medicines and implants will also be available at this newly opened Amrit outlet. Stores of similar kind will also be opened in five other medical college hospitals in Silchar, Barpeta, Dibrugarh and Tezpur.

"We are trying to provide affordable medicines and treatment to people. Drugs for cancer and other diseases will be available at the GMCH outlet," said J.P. Nadda. The state Health Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma accompanied the Union Health Minister, for the inauguration.

Sarma on an earlier occasion had declared that if the six Amrit pharmacies opened in medical college hospitals did good business, the state government would make more additions all over.

Amrit Pharmacy

The government is planning to open 300 outlets of Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (Amrit) pharmacy across the country with an aim to reduce the expenditure incurred by common patients on treatment of cancer and heart diseases.

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.

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.