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| Shortage of medicines leads to blackmarketing |
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Saturday, August 08, 2009
By Asadullah
KARACHI: Shortage of a variety of medicines have created space and scope of black marketing of relatively affordable drugs, which have been allegedly smuggled out because of their relatively cheaper price tags in South Asia, sources said.
Glucophage, an oral medicine that helps control blood sugar levels, has been out of market for quite some time leaving its users at great unease to manage their diabetic condition on regular basis. The demand has created a black market of the very drug.
Widely prescribed for non-insulin-dependent people living with type-2 diabetes, a pack of 50 Glucophage 500 mg tablets was available at Rs65.80 but not anymore. A majority of the medical stores are not supplied the demanded quantity of this drug alone.
“See even life-saving medicines are rare commodity in Karachi,” complains an elderly man after buying Glucophage at exorbitant price from a medical store outside Civil Hospital Karachi. “I wanted to buy more but was given only this single strip this time citing its paucity as prime reason.”
Glucophage is not just one drug vanishing from the medical stores. The list is in fact exhausting. Injections such as Voren, Avil, Decadron, and tablets like Entox-P, Betnisole, Betnilan and syrups like Calpol, Sancos, Panadol and even eye-drops such as Ocudex are simply not available.
When contacted, Pioneer Distributors’ spokesman conceded that the company is struggling to meet the demand of Glucophage but attributed this shortage to the producers of the drugs. “We are not getting the drug from Merck Sante S.A.S. as per the market demand,” he maintains.
Registration of any new drug bounds its manufacturer to market the drug within next six months of registration. The drug registration letter from ministry of health also asks the drug producers to maintain the availability of the very drug throughout Pakistan.
Supervising the Drug Act is a federal subject but its implementation is provincial obligation. What provincial authorities are doing in this regard is altogether a different story. “We can’t get export documents of our medicinal consignment cleared by the office of assistant drug controller, without greasing the palms,” alleges a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Another short-in-supply drug Thyroxin, widely prescribed for throat infection, has been dubbed as great remedial drug carrying a ridiculously low price tag. “Unscrupulous traders manage to smuggle out such drugs for extra bucks,” explains a wholesale chemist wishing anonymity.
Sources say tablet Ativan of 1 and 2 mg of potency has been out of the market due to smuggling and whatever stock remains for local consumption has been sold at 100 per cent more than its original price tag.
Former Chairman Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) Qaiser Waheed attributes the shortage of some of the low-cost medicines to an apparent lack of interest on the part of pharmaceutical manufacturer simply because of low margin of profit. “But this stands nowhere against smuggling.”
Waheed believes the health ministry does not understand the commercial nature of the pharmaceutical industry. He thinks that neither people nor industry will get any better as long as the pharmaceutical sector remains under the health ministry in a clear negation of its commercial nature.
On the other hand, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) criticizes the health ministry for being too lenient with the pharmaceutical manufacturers when it comes to adhering to their obligations of providing ample supply of drugs to the market. It demands immediate availability of all essential drugs, registered with the ministry.
“We need to have a clear policy on brands of essential drugs and their substitute formulae for prescribing the right choice of drug for patients,” Dr Habib Soomro, secretary general of PMA, articulates. “Genuine grievances of pharmaceutical industry should also be taken into account to ensure availability of drugs.”
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ISSN 1563-9479 
