DRAP recommends raising prices of 110 medicines

ISLAMABAD: Following critical shortages of dozens of essential medicines in the country, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has recommended an increase in the prices of over 110 medicines, which are either no more being produced by the local pharmaceutical companies or manufacturers have expressed their inability to continue their production if their prices were not raised.

“On the directives from Islamabad High Court, DRAP has forwarded a list of over 110 essential medicines to the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) as hardship cases and recommended increasing their prices by 30 to 50 percent. These medicines include Lithium Carbonate, an essential medicine used for the treatment of manic-depressive disorder and prevention of suicidal tendencies”, an official of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) told The News on Friday. The list of over 110 essential medicines, which include medicines for the treatment of psychological disorders, various types of cancers, broad-spectrum antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, diagnostic medicines and several other classes of medicines, are either no more available in the market or pharmaceutical companies have reduced their production as their cost of production has increased manifolds due to rupee devaluation, an increase of prices of raw material and several other factors.

The government recently reduced the prices of 20 medicines while it also fixed the prices of 20 new medicines but referred the case of an increase in prices of medicines to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet. The DRAP official maintained that they have received over 400 applications for an increase in the prices of medicines as ‘hardship cases’ in the last few weeks but after thorough analysis and investigation, they have proposed an increase in the prices of 110 medicines, whose unavailability is resulting in the serious hardships for the patients. “The most expensive medicine is the one which is not available in the market”, was the observation of an honourable judge of Islamabad High Court when he took up the matter of the unavailability of the medicines, the DRAP official said adding that in view of the sufferings of the people, they have forwarded the recommendations to the federal health ministry for a price increase. Similarly, essential surgeries and transplants were not being held throughout the country due to unavailability of the several medicines, pharmacists and healthcare professionals claimed and added that people are seriously suffering due to critical shortages of essential medicines. “Not only the production of several essential medicines has been stopped by the local pharmaceutical companies but some essential medicines used for the transplantation of organs are not being imported due to the dollar liquidity crunch. This situation is resulting in a serious health crisis in the country”, Salwa Ahsan, a senior pharmacist associated with a leading tertiary-care health facility in the capital said.

Zahid Saeed, former chairman of the

Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said the “State Bank of Pakistan should ensure availability of dollars for the purchase of medicines and raw material of drugs while the government would have to realize that without inflationary adjustment and increase in the prices of medicines, production of medicines is not possible.”