Patients face essential drugs’ shortage

LAHORE: A severe shortage of popular brands of medicines has been witnessed, as various essential and lifesaving drugs are no longer available in the market, putting the health and lives of patients at risk.

Several noted brands of essential drugs, including metronidazole, amoxicillin, Septran, ibuprofen, mefenamic acid, enoxaparin sodium, clindamycin, pyodine, dexamethasone, anti-TB preparations, insulin, injection used for medical imaging, and a few others, are not available at the wholesale medicine market and medical stores in Lahore, including outlets of all leading chains of pharmacies.

The common citizens are the ultimate victims, as the prices of newer research molecules as substitutes are much higher. According to some estimates, more than 40 per cent of the drugs on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential medicines are not available in the market.

Pharmacy experts, however, believe that pharmaceutical companies have created an artificial shortage of medicines to put pressure on the government to increase prices. They said alternatives to several medicines of popular brands are also available but

The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) has its own excuses. While talking to a group of journalists on Monday, PPMA’s central chairman Mian Khalid Misbah claimed that the cost of doing business has increased considerably due to a historical surge in the exchange rate, inflation, wages, and electricity/gas tariffs.

“There is a very low margin of profit in the prices of essential drugs for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, and other ailments. There is an immediate need for revising the prices of drugs to the levels to provide realistic and reasonable profit margins to manufacturers, dealers, wholesalers, and retailers,” he added.

He believes that, as per policy, the revision of drug prices is critical to control drug shortages and save the pharmaceutical industry from the shutdown, not just to protect the health and lives of patients but also to safeguard the livelihood of millions of workers attached to the pharmaceutical industry.

He said that lower than reasonable prices lead to shortages, hoarding, and unchecked sales of drugs in the retail market at higher rates, with patients and the industry both facing hardship as a result.

As such, he added, the only way of overcoming the shortage of these drugs is by giving a realistic and reasonable profit margin to the entire supply chain from manufacturers to retailers.

“There are other issues like the provision/import of raw materials, registration of drugs, and long delays in the allocation of controlled drugs resulting in shortages of painkillers and epilepsy medicines,” he explained to the journalists. He believes that the government should implement the drug pricing policy in letter and spirit to save the local pharmaceutical industry from impending disaster.

“If there are issues in the existing policy, the government can follow international references after due consultations with the stakeholders. But not implementing existing policies and two-year-long delays make no sense,” he added.

“The Economic Coordination Council (ECC) has deferred the decision on 262 hardship cases. It has been almost two years since DRAP recommended increasing the prices of 262 drugs while rejecting 217 other cases. These cases are still pending. It is impossible for pharmaceutical companies to provide these drugs at old rates, which no longer remain viable. The industry is being forced to shut down, and it may never recover to the detriment of patients in the country,” he added.