India's free generic drug program is "a positive step in improving access to health care"

Recently much attention has been focused on the need to ensure that poor populations have access to generic essential medicines. Actor Aamir Khan has pitched before a parliamentary panel the need to ensure that generic medicines are made available to the poor. In June, the government of India announced that it is setting up a procurement and distribution system intended to provide low income populations with free unbranded generic medicines.

According to Aman Gupta, principal advisor at India Health Progress, an independent call-for-action forum working to improve health care, “Aamir Khan’s comments and the initiatives of the government of India are critically important steps in meeting India’s unmet health needs. A publicly funded drug program for poor populations is essential to reducing the growing social and economic burden of disease in India for the hundreds of millions of Indians who live below the poverty line”

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