Affordable healthcare is a basic human right. However, in Pakistan, due to poverty a majority of people cannot afford medical treatments of a life-threatening disease. As a result, many patients die because they cannot continue to bear the expenses of their treatment anymore. In order to make healthcare accessible to all, Novartis and the Punjab government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for provision of free medicines to patients suffering from breast cancer, diabetes, and heart and respiratory diseases. The pharmaceutical giant will provide medicines to the provincial government who would pay $1 per patient to the company. They medicines will be distributed among patients free of cost.
Another initiative, which is expected to benefit over 9,000 cancer patients, is the pharmaceutical giant’s collaboration with the Punjab Health Department to offer improved healthcare facilities to cancer patients. This is a major step in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors as typically patients do not continue their treatment because there comes a time when they fail to pay for medicines. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer are the leading causes of death across the world. These efforts like the one taken by Novartis are commendable as they help ease the misery of the needy.
Kiran Farooq
Karachi