Combating ailments: Find cure for fatal diseases, SC says to govt

Laments donated vaccines being sold in the market


Hasnaat Malik December 23, 2015
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ISLAMABAD:


The top court on Tuesday told the federal and provincial governments to take remedial measures to combat fatal diseases instead of making efforts only on paper.


A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, was pursuing a suo motu case on the country’s health issues.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali was perturbed by the increase in the price of hepatitis C medicines. He was also concerned over the reported deaths of thousands of children last year due to pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The bench directed the federal and provincial health secretaries to submit a report on their measures for combating the ever-increasing fatal diseases.



It also issued notices to the CEO of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), and the health directors-general of all the administrations.

The court lamented that the vaccines and syringes received through international donors were being sold in the market. It also hinted at examining the issue of increase in the price of medicines due to “monopoly of a federal minister’s relative”.

Justice Ejaz claimed that 2% of the people in the country fall victim to terrorism, but the rest are victims of diseases.

He asked why pharmaceutical companies selling hepatitis C medicines on low prices were not being encouraged, adding that underprivileged people could not seek treatment of the disease due to high costs.

Meanwhile, Everest Pharmaceuticals’ counsel Raja Farooq told the bench that his client had produced hepatitis C medicine that was being sold at Rs116 a tablet, adding that two other companies were selling the same medicine between Rs1,000 and Rs3,000.

Farooq said his client had applied for registration of the medicine last June, adding that DRAP had started raising absurd objections to delay the registration that were never raised for registration of any other medicine. The bench has sought explanation over the matter.

Justice Ejaz said that after the passage of the 18th amendment, health had been devolved to the provinces and they were bound to work on that.

He adjourned the hearing of the case for three weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2015.

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