The Government is set to revamp the method of procuring vital drugs.

It proposes to source drugs through Central Medical Stores adopting an IT-based system, a senior official in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told Business Line .

The new system will be in place by 2015-16.

The Ministry had faced criticism after it failed to procure sufficient drugs to treat tuberculosis (TB) in 2012, since tendering for procurement had been done late.

The issue had spilled over to 2013 as well, creating fears of shortage of the first-line drugs such as Rifampicin and Isoniazid used to treat TB.

“The Ministry had got into arrangements with RITES and others to do the procurements for us, which did not work out satisfactorily. So, now we will do through our own Central Medical Stores (CMSs). It is expected from 2015-16 the procurement will start there,” said the official.

This will be an IT-driven procurement system under which the exact position of every State will be known and would further help the Centre decide which drugs need to be pushed first.

The procurement of drugs to treat certain diseases such as TB and malaria are done by the Centre itself, since the prevalence of these diseases is high in the country and take several lives.

India also runs a DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, short-course) programme to combat TB and it is important for patients to complete their DOTS course to prevent any chances of either developing drug-resistant TB or losing their lives. This is one of the vital reasons the Government procures TB drugs directly to ensure sufficient supply in Government hospitals and enable treatment of all TB-affected patients. Other than TB and malaria, the Union Government also procures important vaccines used under the Universal Immunisation Programme.

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