Paracetamol, several other vital medicines vanish

ISLAMABAD: After the unavailability of Paracetamol tablets in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad markets and other cities of Pakistan for the last several months, various brands of injectable Paracetamol have also started vanishing from the pharmacies, which are used in hospitals and healthcare facilities to manage fever, pharmacists and patients said on Wednesday.

A survey of pharmacies in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore revealed that Paracetamol tablets were not easily available, and those having stocks of the different brands of Paracetamol were indulged in black-marketing, selling the blister of Paracetamol from Rs30 to 80 instead of its official price at Rs18.70 per 10 tablets.

Market sources said Paracetamol tablets were being sold at exorbitant rates throughout the country as pharmaceutical companies have brought its production to the ‘bare minimum, arguing that the cost of production of each Paracetamol had reached Rs2/tablet while they were being asked to sell it in Rs 18.70/10 tablets.

“In June 2020, the raw material of Paracetamol was Rs756/kg which is now available at Rs2,300/kg. Cost of fuel, utilities and raw material has also increased manifolds but manufacturers are still being asked to sell the medicine at Rs18.70/10 tablets, which is not possible,” an office-bearer of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) said on condition of anonymity.

Similarly, various brands of injectable Paracetamol have vanished from the market and patients’ attendants were desperately looking for Paracetamol injections, which is the first-line agent for the treatment of pain, dengue fever, malaria, typhoid and infectious diseases across the country.

“Paracetamol tablet is not easily available in the market and it is being sold at Rs80 per 10 tablets due to black-marketing in Karachi because the government is not willing to increase its price to Rs2.67/ tablet. Patients are suffering because its production is under tremendous stress due to the increase in the cost of production,” Zahid Saeed, former Chairman of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) said.

Several manufacturers said that due to the increase in the cost of production of Paracetamol, they were unable to continue production while some of the leading manufacturers of medicines said their production was ‘under stress’ but they were manufacturing to fulfil national and international obligations.

In addition to some leading brands of Paracetamol, and several other anti-fever medicines are not easily available, pharmacists said. Senior pharmacist and an office-bearer of the Pakistan Society of Health System Pharmacists (PSHP) Umaima Muzammil said that due to scarcity of medicines, spurious drugs had flooded the market and fraudsters were trying to sell such drugs to pharmacies on huge margins.

“We are observing a shortage of anti-malarial medicines in addition to several other medicines and due to unavailability of the genuine drugs, the market is swamped with spurious drugs,” Muzammil added.

On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies “Mood Stabilisers & Anticonvulsants are still not available and Patients of Bipolar Affective Disorders and their families are suffering!” President of Pakistan Psychiatric Society (PPS) Prof Dr Imtiaz Dogar told The News.