Drug prices frozen

LAHORE: Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday stopped the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) from increasing the prices of medicines in the country.

During a hearing of a case at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry, DRAP informed the court that a policy had been formed for an increase in medicine prices and all the stakeholders had agreed on it.

Directing the authority to keep prices of all medicines frozen till decision on the cases, the CJ asked it to decide within 10 weeks all pending cases of pharmaceutical companies regarding prices of drugs. The chief justice also remarked that the apex court could not interfere in policy matters of departments.

The CJ also accepted DRAP’s request and allowed it to extend the timeframe by one year for enforcement of quick response (QR) barcode on the packaging of medicines. An additional attorney general told the court that earlier the timeline of two years was going to expire in the coming December. However, he said, more time would be required for implementation of the policy.

The court was told that the barcodes would provide all information about the batch numbers, expiry dates and the genre of medicines. The law officer stated that 390 medicine manufacturing companies had already implemented the barcode policy. He said the complete enforcement of the barcode would help eradicate spurious medicines from the market.

The chief justice disposed of the matter and directed DRAP to finalise its policy after consultation with all stakeholders and decide all pending cases of pharmaceutical companies in 10 weeks. The Supreme Court also directed the federal government to appoint a permanent chief executive officer (CEO) of the drug authority.