General Manager of Nepal Aushadhi Limited Kailash Kumar Paneru says: What will we do if the government does not take the medicine produced by the company which is fully owned by the government?
Nepal Aushadhi Limited, which is wholly owned by the government, is facing a financial crisis due to the government's own policies. The government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal at that time decided to produce 20 of the 98 types of medicines that were available free of charge by the Medicines Limited.
For that, the Ministry of Finance had also formed a secretary-level committee to manage the budget of 24 million rupees. But when the limited company started producing medicine, the government changed and the financial support that the limited company was supposed to receive was stopped, causing a financial crisis.
General Manager of Nepal Aushadhi Limited, Kailash Kumar Paneru, said that although 10 of the 20 medicines have been produced, the government has not received 24 million rupees. In a conversation with News Agency Nepal, General Manager Paneru said that there is a problem in the production of more medicines due to not being able to get the budget from the government. Limited has a plan to produce more drugs with the money received from the sale of drugs in case of not getting the budget from the government.
The then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called us and formed a high-level committee to produce 20 types of medicine immediately and the government would invest for it. He formed a team including Industry Secretary, Health Secretary, Finance Secretary. According to the instructions of that committee, there was an agreement that Nepal Aushadhi Limited will immediately manufacture 20 types of medicines and the required 24 million rupees will be released from the Ministry of Finance. We started with that. We have already produced half of the medicine. 10/12 medicines are in RND. There was a slight delay because the money that was supposed to come from the Nepal government did not come, otherwise we would have made it by now," said General Manager Paneru.
Paneru, the general manager, said that through the production of life water and citamol, Limited is meeting its administrative expenses and producing more drugs. He said that due to the fact that the budget is not coming from the government, the money coming from the sale of medicine is being made into a budget, and the remaining money is being used to increase the production of more medicine. According to him, Aushadhi Limited is currently manufacturing 11 types of medicines including MGD, Folic Acid, Glycerin, Sanitizer, Distilled Water. In the near future, the goal of the limited company is to produce medicines for cholesterol, sugar, pressure etc.
'Among the drugs that we have produced so far, we have made 11 types of drugs including Amzid, Folic Acid, Glycerin, Sanitizer, Distilled Water. Now we have cholesterol, sugar, Medicines such as pressure which are used for chronic patients. According to the plan to make that drug, it has gone into planning. I think it will come to the market by the next financial year," he said.
The situation of having to rely on Jeevan water and Citamol
Nepal Aushadhi Limited is currently mainly dependent on the income received from the sale of Jeevan water and Citamol. But as the government itself determines its selling price, it is forced to sell at a price lower than the cost, says General Manager Paneru. He says that it is difficult to make a profit because the price of raw materials sometimes increases and sometimes decreases. General Manager Paneru said, "We sometimes buy raw materials for 300 rupees and sometimes for 1000 rupees. However, the selling price is determined by the government, due to which we are always at a loss.' Even though the drugs produced by
Aushadhi Limited are of good quality, the government does not purchase the manufactured drugs from its own company. Due to the tendency of the government itself not to purchase medicines, not providing budget and giving priority to the private sector, the very existence of Aushadhi Limited is in crisis. At present, there are three levels of drug supply in Nepal - federal government, state government and local level.
General Manager Paneru said that even though all these have purchased drugs worth crores of rupees, they prefer private companies instead of buying from Nepal Aushadhi Limited. He said that while citizens are complaining that the government is not providing Citamol, they are producing and distributing medicines by importing expensive raw materials.
'We deliver 98 types of medicines distributed by the government for free. Now we are trying to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Health. We also correspond with the three levels of government to purchase medicines produced by Nepal Pharmaceuticals Limited. We will go by ourselves. What will we do if the government does not take the medicine produced by the company that is fully owned by the government? Our The medicine is of good quality. Therefore, the next demand is that the government should buy our medicine.'
