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New Delhi:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras) in collaboration with Krea University, Chennai conducted a study that can help boost medical deliveries in India. The study by varsities showed that fill rates of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, and Punjab could potentially rise to 53 per cent as compared to an average fill rate of 30.95 per cent.
States like Kerala follow a centralised system, while others like Punjab. Tamil Nadu and Odisha follow a decentralised system, which is a mix of the two. “The study found that despite the operational, logistic, and infrastructural challenges that exist in the current drug supply system, several measures can be undertaken by State Governments to considerably ease the system and address medicine shortage,” the release read.
The study confirms the intuition that order timing is very important to meeting demands and that states must consider staggering their orders instead of batching them. “While the current processes of applying penalties and blacklisting suppliers are important levers with a state, a graded manner of applying these can help alleviate issues,” the release read.
Elaborating on the need for such studies, Prof. R.P. Sundarraj, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, said, “Essential medicine is a key issue affecting health outcomes. This is especially an issue in low and middle income countries. The Indian government recognizes this and has enabled the import and production of APIs and KSMs for the manufacture of such medicines.” “We were fortunate to have the active support of a key policy maker who could point us to the right data sources and more importantly scope the project to address the key issues faced by state governments,” he added.
The entire research and modelling were done based on data available in the public domain, with advice from policymakers, the release read.
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/education/iit-madras-study-suggests-ways-to-boost-medicine-supply-deliveries-in-india-iitm-ac-in
