Patients suffer as Sindh health dept stops supplying free cancer drugs

A halt in the supplies of at least five life-saving cancer medicines by the Sindh Health Department has endangered the lives of thousands of patients, whose family members are moving from pillar to post for the past six to eight months to arrange these medicines for their loved ones to keep them healthy and alive, The News has learnt.

Glivec, Tasigna, Revolade and Jakavi among others were being provided free of charge to patients under the Sindh CML (chronic myeloid leukaemia) Project, for which the health department had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis to provide these medicines to thousands of patients in the province.

The Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) administration, from where these medicines were being made available to cancer patients for free, stopped providing them to patients some six months ago, arguing that they were trying to arrange alternative medicines, forcing patients to buy these medicines directly from the company to remain healthy and alive.

“The Sindh Health Department has stopped providing me cancer medicine for my wife, who is suffering from immune thrombocytopenia,” Muhammad Baig, a photographer by profession, said on Wednesday.

“For the past six months these medicines are not being provided by the CHK administration. We have been told that the Sindh government has stopped the project through which these medicines were being given free of charge to patients.”

Several other patients suffering from CML, aplastic anaemia, polycythemia vera, myelofibrosis, breast cancer and other chronic health conditions also confirmed that due to the suspension of free medicine delivery by the Sindh government, they had been forced to buy them directly from Novartis, costing them Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 a month.

“Despite earning Rs35,000 I’m compelled to spend Rs10,000 for purchasing CML medicines from the pharmaceutical company directly, which is providing us the medicine on subsidised prices after the health department stopped providing cancer medicines,” 40-year-old cancer patient Khurram Ahmed told The News.

Irked by the unavailability of free cancer medicines, and in search for cheap alternatives, CML patients and their relatives have formed a WhatsApp group to help each other find solutions to get the medicines without burdening them financially, but to no avail. Some of them tried to approach Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal, but according to the patients, it also refused to entertain them.

Some of the patients hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who were living in Karachi have gone back to KP, where these medicines are still being provided for free due to an MOU between the KP government and the pharmaceutical firm, but hundreds of others have no such facility available, so they are approaching philanthropic organisations for making the costly cancer medicines available to them.

A couple of patients blamed former CHK medical superintendent Dr Noor Muhammad Soomro for the suspension of cancer medicines, claiming that he had tried to sell some smuggled and unregistered alternative CML medicines from his own private clinic in Clifton, which were costly but ineffective.

“After getting the Sindh CML Project closed, Dr Soomro started selling smuggled and unregistered medicines to patients from his clinic, which were ineffective and resulted in serious adverse effects to patients. He also used to ask patients to visit his private clinic if they needed free medicines for several weeks,” claimed Irfan Ahmed, a relative of a CML patient.

Confirming the suspension of cancer medicines’ supply to patients, an official of the health department said the project had been halted after senior oncologist and former CHK MS Dr Soomro raised objections on purchasing medicines from the multinational pharmaceutical firm, arguing that the government should purchase cheap generic medicines from the market instead of going for branded medicines.

“Dr Soomro also wanted an audit of the whole project. On his objections and suggestions, the project was stopped and an open tender invited from local companies for supplying cancer medicines,” said the official.

“Some companies participated in the process, and on the basis of lower prices quoted by them, we have forwarded a summary to the Sindh chief minister for the purchase of medicines.”

Talking to The News, Dr Soomro said Novartis was providing the medicines on exorbitant rates, while some local companies had come with very cheap alternatives, which were also approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, adding that the health department is expected to resume supply of these medicines to patients soon.

Replying to a query, he denied any wrongdoing in the supply of medicines to cancer patients, claiming that he had tried to facilitate cancer patients as much as possible by arranging cancer medicines for them through the CML project.