Medicine Bank in all districts in Orissa- UCDA

Bhubaneswar, Jan 21 (UNI) All the district headquarter hospitals in Orissa will have medicine bank to cater to the needy and poor people.

Utkal Chemists and Druggists Association (UCDA) General Secretary Choudhary Prabir Kumar Das told newsmen here that so far ten such medicine banks had already started functioning in nine districts.

The medicine banks, he said, would function in collaboration with the District Red Cross to provide free medicines to the people from old age home and orphanage besides unidentified persons admitted to the hospitals.

Mr Das said Orissa would be the first states in the country to have Medicine banks in all the district headquarter hospitals. He said the UCDA had already provided medicines to the Medicine banks and made efforts to ensure that people received medicines from the bank at low price.

The UCDA General Secretary said as per the demand of the all India Chemists and Druggist Association, the Centre had agreed to mention the maximum retail price(MRP) on the medicine from October 2,2006 for the benefit of the common people.

With the introduction of the MRP, Mr Das claimed the prices of as many as 886 types of medicines had been reduced ranging from .26 per cent to 74.5 per cent.

In Orissa, he said at least 20 per cent of medicines with MRP had been released to the market, while the rest 80 per cent medicines would soon have the MRP to prevent price variations of medicines.

UNI