“Tomorrow, I can give you pin code wise data on diseases across the country,” says J.S. Shinde, explaining the impact of E-Milan, a recently rolled-out software package to capture medicine prices from the market place.
Shinde heads the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), representing about 7.5 lakh retailers across the country. And the new package, still in its infancy, will capture over 80 per cent data from across the country, down to the chemist, he says.
The trade body’s product adds a fresh spin to the debate on medicine prices.
The Government is expected to come out with its revised drug pricing policy next month, and the journey has not been without its hiccups.
A key concern is the use of medicine-price data captured by IMS, an international information, services and technology provider for the healthcare industry.
In fact, even the World Health Organisation had pointed out the incongruity of using private, proprietary data for a public health policy.
But in the absence of any other data, the Government has stuck with the IMS data, that is used in other global markets and is time-tested, an official familiar with the development said.
Besides, the AIOCD is a stakeholder in the pharma industry and the data would be perceived as not being independent, the official added.
Pointing out how information from the retailer was a blind-spot in the medicine distribution chain, consultants Ernst & Young had in a recent study observed, there was little visibility, even for drug companies, on the distribution of medicines beyond stockists.
Given these inadequacies in the system, the AIOCD’s upgraded software package is interesting, if indeed it can provide independent data from across the country, said a pharma industry veteran.
How it works
Shinde is confident that, in a year, the software will be installed at retailers across the country, save a few who resist the development.
Launched over four months ago, the product is an improvement on its earlier software that captured 45 per cent data, he said.
Existing data are usually up to the stockists, and E-Milan will capture a sale from a chemist whether it happens in Chennai or in the North East, he explains.
The software has been developed by AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS, a joint-venture company, with Chennai-based Medi-Infotec.
India has different climatic zones and diseases, and data on the sale of medicines in these regions can help Government streamline its healthcare planning, be it for swine flu, tuberculosis, HIV or malaria, he says, adding that queries have come in from the Governments in Kerala and Maharashtra.