‘Around 80 essential drugs unavailable across country’

PPMA calls for steps to resolve medicine prices issue at the earliest

Karachi

The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) said on Monday that many medicines including essential drugs are unavailable in the market because of an utterly unfair pricing mechanism.

Around 70 or 80 medicines have virtually vanished from the market as their indigenous manufacturing is no longer a viable option for the local industry, he PPMA said in a press release.

It said the pharmaceutical sector was the only industry of the country which had to pay general sales tax on certain inputs of its raw material while on the other hand the medicines manufacturers could not charge the same sales tax from consumers.

This coupled with a completely irrational pricing policy and mechanism has led to a situation where local manufacturing of a number of medicines on cheaper cost including those required for common and life threatening diseases was no more a lucrative option for the local industry.

The medicines no longer available in the market are prescribed for treating Epilepsy, Thyroid disease, for some neurological disorders, and similar other common and fatal health ailments.

The PPMA said the price controlling powers of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) should be confined only to the “Model List of Essential Medicines” of the World Health Organisation that is globally accepted as the list contained all life saving and other emergency medicines essentially needed by hospitals. 

For such reasons drug companies have moved the superior court as the very last resort to save the medicines’ industry from becoming extinct owing to complete apathy shown by the drug sector regulator and the government towards the pricing issue.

Pharmaceutical companies have taken battle of their very survival to superior court when they had been denied the lawful right to do minimal adjustment in prices of medicines to make viable their manufacturing in the local drug industry, said the statement.

It said that medicines’ manufacturers had been left with no option but to move the superior court when they didn’t get relief of increase in prices of even “hardship medicines” by meagre ratio of up to 2.86 per cent as prescribed by latest drug pricing mechanism of the govt.

The PPMA said that manufacturers’ of medicines waited up till 10 months to get the minutes circulated and decisions notified of the meetings of drug pricing committee of DRAP but to no avail.

The statement said that medicines’ manufacturers were unduly and unfairly being subjected to criticism by certain concerned quarters for their move to seek court’s intervention in drug pricing issue. The PPMA said that the court’s intervention had been sought for ensuring adjustment in prices of certain essential medicines whose manufacturing in the country had no more been a viable option.

It said that under the new drug policy, the DRAP was under obligation to process and decide cases of “hardship medicines” applying for price increase within 90 days.  As after expiry of this period the applicant companies would themselves become eligible to increase prices of their non-viable medicines under the agreed pricing mechanism and formula.

It said the companies had simply exercised this right granted to them under current medicines’ pricing policy of the government.

This right was used after the DRAP was reminded several times through letters and meetings about the obligation it had to fulfill regarding decisions on hardship medicines that applied for price increase.

The statement said the medicines companies had to appeal the superior court to seek its protection against any adverse action of DRAP, which otherwise would simply render the pharmaceutical sector a non-viable industry in the country.

It said that on basis of such circumstances and arguments, the superior court allowed the plea of medicines’ companies.

The PPMA said that patients in the country would be ultimate sufferers if the government further persisted with its irrational price control policy as locally manufactured medicines with affordable rates used for treating common diseases would no longer be available in the market.