Regulatory body’s CEO says quality comes with cost but ordinary people must be able to afford medicines
The head of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Tuesday called for “further rationalisation” of medicine prices in Pakistan, saying that there were still many drugs which were not affordable for ordinary Pakistanis and there was a need to lower the prices to make them accessible to the common people in the country.
“We, in the DRAP, believe that quality [of medicine] comes with cost, but there is an urgent need to rationalise prices of medicines whose prices are still very high and are not affordable for a vast majority of ordinary people,” said CEO Mohammad Aslam while talking to The News after attending the 3rd Annual Pharma Convention 2016 at the Expo Centre in Karachi.
“Of course, we are considering pricing issues of the drug manufacturing industry, but at the same time, we have to safeguard the interest of the people first,” he said.
Aslam’s remarks come at a time when local pharmaceutical companies and multinationals are calling for the “de-regularisation of the pricing mechanism” in Pakistan, arguing that prices had not been revised over the last 15 years, making it impossible for them to continue production of some of the vital drugs and medical supplies at the existing rates.
The DRAP chief maintained that they had allowed pharmaceutical companies to increase the prices of some of the drugs as “hardship” cases, but the maximum increase in the cost of a drug could not be more than eight percent of the existing price. He added that in the past, there was no such mechanism and prices were increased on the basis of favouritism and nepotism.
“We are also in the process of declaring some drugs as ‘orphan drugs’, whose production is being stopped by the industry, as these drugs are no more profitable or even the cost of production is not being recovered at the existing prices. The prices of such ‘orphan drugs’ would be enhanced to continue their production for the betterment of common people.”
Aslam said the prices of raw material were decreasing in the international market, while new, cost-effective and better equipment and techniques had been introduced in the pharmaceutical sector, due to which, prices of medicines were falling all over the world. He added that local pharmaceutical industry should also follow the course and rationalise the prices of medicines, which were still very costly for most ordinary Pakistanis.
Earlier, speaking to the convention as chief guest, the DRAP CEO urged the pharmaceutical industry to upgrade their systems, equipment and production mechanisms to lower the production costs. He urged the foreign investors to come to Pakistan and invest in the pharmaceutical sector, which had a lot of room for growth.
“Pakistan has high potential for growth in the pharma sector because of increasing health awareness in the country, while our inflation rate is lowest at the moment in the last 40 years and the interest rate is also very low, making it an ideal situation for investment in the country, especially in the pharmaceutical sector,” he claimed.
Commenting on calls for the de-regularisation of prices of medicines, he said the “best regulation is the self-regulation”, and reminded the industry that regulations were introduced by the pharmaceutical industry itself to prevent the production and growth of counterfeit and spurious drugs.
He called for neighbouring countries to play their active role in control and cross-border movement of spurious drugs, saying that for having a $200-400 million market, mafias were very much interested and attracted to the spurious drugs’ trade, putting the lives of thousands of people at stake.
Pharma Industry’s call
Heads of local and multinational pharmaceutical companies demanded of the DRAP to distance itself from fixing the prices of medicines, saying the de-regularisation of prices would not increase the prices of most of the products due to a tough competition in the market.
Sohail Ahmed Matin of GSK said the DRAP had lost its focus, as instead of focusing on the quality and efficacy of the drugs, it was more interested in regularising the prices of drugs, which was in fact not its job.
He said there was a tough competition in the local market due to 700 pharmaceutical companies and units, and claimed that companies were compelled to leave Pakistan due to an unrealistic pricing policy.
Hanif Sttar of Otsuka also deplored that due to regulations, pharmaceutical companies were unable to prepare their future plans, and said no investment was being made in the industry due to lack of returns. Haroon Qasim of the PharmEvo deplored that Pakistan was without an industrial policy with no active federal industries minister.
He added that the entire focus of the authorities was on exports. Citing India, he said they were equally interested in promoting their local industry while Pakistan’s entire focus was on exports instead of protecting and promoting existing industries.