Pharma industry’s growth stunted

Companies demand transparent, market-oriented pricing policy.

KARACHI: The absence of a functioning regulatory framework conforming to international standards has been the main impediment to the growth of pharmaceutical industry.

This was stated by Arshad Hussain, Co-Chairman of the Pharma Bureau, an association of research-based multinational pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan, in a press briefing here on Tuesday.

He said the draft drug pricing policy did not reflect the numerous discussions held between the industry and the government over the past eight years. “We have expressed our serious reservations about the draft.”

Hussain said the proposed policy, if approved, would result in severe shortage of essential and life-saving medicines including insulins, anti-cancer drugs, TB and anti-epileptic drugs, vaccines, polio drops, antibiotics, cardiovasculars and paracetamol.

The lack of introduction of new therapies would deprive patients of the benefits of latest research and quality products would be replaced by substandard and fake medicines, he added.

Moreover, according to Hussain, drugs will be cheaper for the rich and more expensive for the poor and pose a threat to the continuation of patient access programmes under which thousands of poor critically ill patients are provided with latest life-saving therapies for free.

“We believe that if the government introduces a transparent market-oriented pricing policy for the pharmaceutical industry, it would create stability and predictability, which is necessary to stimulate investment and growth in the sector.” Similarly, a transparent and predictable regulatory environment would lead to improvement in the quality of medicines, access to new therapies at affordable prices and remove shortages of essential drugs.

The stimulus would also enable the pharmaceutical industry to tap its huge export potential, as witnessed by other countries in the region. In order to achieve this, the industry needed a new policy with a transparent mechanism to adjust prices, benchmarked with other regional countries with similar incomes and standards of living, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.

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