Court informed that more than 4,000 patients
died daily in Pakistan; health secretaries of federation, all provincial govts and DG DRA directed to submit report to give input with immediate remedial
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday observed that more people have died due to Hepatitis-C and pneumonia than terrorism.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal heard a suo moto case about the number of deaths caused by pneumonia & Hepatitis-C. He further said that five million had died because of these two diseases so far.
The court directed health secretaries of federation and all the provincial governments and the DG Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) to submit comprehensive reports pertaining to measures taken for controlling Hepatitis-C and pneumonia.
Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan further observed that medicines, Pakistan gets in foreign aid was also sold while in many cases old polio drop were administered to the children. He recalled that when he was in Peshawar, once he visited the jail wherein he found that majority of the inmates were suffering from Hepatitis. He said that when he inquired about the reasons, the jailer informed him that Hepatitis-C medicines were very expensive and it was impossible for them to provide these medicines due to lack of funds.
The court observed that hepatitis patients did not get proper treatment as its medicines are not available in the market.Everest Pharmaceutical company filed an application impleading party in the instant suo moto case.
The petitioner informed the court that they had manufactured a drug for the treatment of Hepatitis-C with the name Sovir (Sofosbuvir) available at Rs116 per tablet.
He further submitted that the company was also producing drugs for the same diseases with the names Daclatasvir 60mg at Rs46/- per tablet, Simeprevir 150mg at Rs92 per capsule and Ledipasvir 90mg and Sofosbuvir 400mg at Rs498 per tablet.
Representing the company, Khawaja Farooq advocate informed the court that they had applied for the registration of Sovir with Drug Registration Authority in June 2014 but the authority delayed the registration on unconvincing ground. He submitted that they approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) by filing a writ petition, which directed the authority to register the medicine with four weeks. He however, contended that despite of LHC direction, the Drug Registration Authority did not register the drug therefore, they filed a contempt petition.
After their contempt petition, he informed the court that the authority informed that Drug Registration Board after thorough deliberation has granted registration and letter will be issued after fulfillment of codal formation.
The counsel for the company further submitted that the registration letter had not been issued despite the fact they had completed all the codal formalities, including Clinical Trials and Stability Studies.
He informed the court that more than 4,000 patients died daily in Pakistan due to Hepatitis-C as treatment was inaccessible by the masses and there were more than 20 million patients of hepatitis-C in Pakistan.
Meanwhile the court sought comprehensive reports from the health secretaries of federation and all the provincial governments and the DG Drug Regulatory Authority regarding measures taken for controlling Hepatitis-C and pneumonia.
The court directed that federal as well as provincial health secretaries are required to give their input not only on papers but some immediate remedial should be taken in order to combat the ever increasing diseases.
The court also issued notice to Attorney General after Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti told the court that they were not issued notice earlier.
On November 27, the chief justice had taken notice of the facts and figures of deaths of children caused by pneumonia and diarrhea especially in Pakistan due to lack of attention by the high ups and called comments from the health secretaries of all the four provinces.
The chief justice took notice on an application of Sheraz Mehmood Quershi, Resident of Mansehra enclosing two columns of an Urdu Daily and issued notices to the health secretaries of all the four provinces.
In one of the column it was given details, facts and figures of deaths of children caused by pneumonia and diarrhea especially in Pakistan due to lack of attention by the high ups on this serious issue.
It was further stated in the column that in the year 2014 alone, 144,000 children died of pneumonia and diarrhea. In the second column it was reported about Hepatitis-C and its spread in Pakistan due to lack of sanitation and other issues.
Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing for three weeks.