4,000 hepatitis patients die daily in country: YPA

LAHORE

The Young Pharmacists Association (YPA) has claimed that 20 million Pakistanis are suffering from Hepatitis C and more than 4,000 out of them die daily as they cannot afford extremely high priced medicine (Sofosbuvir) for Hepatitis-C treatment.

Addressing a press conference here at the Lahore Press Club on Monday, YPA Vice-President Dr Muhammad Ahmad, Joint Secretary Dr Hina Shaukat and General Secretary Dr Haroon Yousaf, in the presence of Pakistan Pharmacist Association (PPA) General Secretary Dr Noor Mehar and a number of hepatitis-C patients, condemned Federal Ministry of Health and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for denying registration of economical Hepatitis-C medicines against the interest of poor patients. They said that Federal Minister Saira Afzal Tarar was behaving like a monarch, who didn’t know if someone gets ill in those families, where two times bread is not available, then those families only wait for death. They said that Supreme Court had taken suo motu action on extremely expensive hepatitis-C medicines and asked for economical medicines. We cannot understand, how the officials of Ministry of National Health Services and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan still think that they will betray and cheat apex and higher courts, by saying that cheaper hepatitis-C medicines cannot treat hepatitis-C, whereas Sovir (Sofosbuvir) has proven its efficacy, safety and quality in clinical trials conducted by Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal, ex-Chairman/Dean, Shaikh Zayed Medical Institute, Principal, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Medical & Dental College, Prof Dr Aftab Mohsin, Principal, Gujranwala Medical College, Dr Sanjiv Saigal, Director Transplant Hepatology, Medanta The Medicity, Gurgaon, Delhi, India. Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has given in writing to the Lahore High Court on October 6, 2015, that Registration Board after thorough deliberation registered Sovir 400mg tablet (Sofosbuvir). The Registration Board has also registered Ledi-Sovir tablet (Sofosbuvir + Ledipasvir) on October 5, 2015, which is latest treatment for hepatitis-C. 

They informed that Everest Pharmaceuticals has become party in suo motu case of Supreme Court on December 22, 2015 and gave in writing prices of Rs46 per tablet of Daclatasvir, Rs116 per tablet of Sofosbuvir, Rs498 per tablet of Sofosbuvir+Ledipasvir and Rs92 per tablet of Simeprevir. Ministry of National Health Services and DRAP are not only delaying registration letters of all the four medicines of Hepatitis-C, but also pressurising a pharmaceuticals to withdraw its applications for registration, as it likes to give cheapest hepatitis-C medicines, they alleged. They said that the disease is more prevalent amongst the poor socioeconomic population where the prevalence is much higher. A careful estimation would be more than 20 million people infected by hepatitis C, out of which 6 million could be labelled as having serious liver disease and 1.2 million at a greater risk of developing liver cancer. It is very difficult for a poor patient of Hepatitis-C to get admission in government hospitals, but still, every third patient in medicine wards is of hepatitis-C and waiting for death as he/she cannot afford medicine.

They alleged that present CEO of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan was selected from a company, which was banned in Punjab in 2012, after deaths of more than 250 patients in Punjab Institute of Cardiology. “The DRAP CEO got his induction in DRAP in the start of 2015 with a backing of a black marketing mafia,” they alleged. They alleged that DRAP CEO was a corrupt person and was defaming government efforts for humanity. “Time is not far, he will make all pharma companies “killer companies”. They appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif that dengue is not as deadly disease as hepatitis, and as you have controlled dengue, must do something for availability of cheaper hepatitis-C medicines. They urged the PM and the CM to help poor and helpless hepatitis patients to be cured and ask DRAP to issue registration letters of all four medicines forthwith and force pharma company to make available medicines within 15 days in entire Pakistan.