Pharmacists, lawyers claim hepatitis drug prices hiked

Accuse drug regulator of setting prices higher than that demanded by manufacturer

ISLAMABAD: A pricing committee of drug regulators has fixed prices of two hepatitis medicines at rates higher than formally demanded by the respective company.

This was alleged by lawyers and young pharmacists during a news conference on Wednesday.

In its 21st meeting held on Monday, the pricing committee of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) had reportedly fixed the cost of prices of Daclatasvir and Sofosbuvir 400mg + Ledipasvir 90mg tablet at Rs162.50 and Rs1,050 respectively even though the company had demanded that the rates would be fixed at Rs18 and Rs75 respectively.

The Pakistan Drug Lawyers Forum (PDLF) and Pakistan Young Pharmacist Association (PYPA) claimed that fixing of prices by the regulator several times higher than demanded by the companies clearly reveals mala fide intention of DRAP and Ministry of National Health Services.

They claimed that the Drug Pricing Committee’s (DPC) meeting agenda showed that the company had applied to fix rates of Daclatasvir at Rs18 per tablet and Sofosbuvir 400mg + Ledipasvir 90mg tablet at Rs75 per tablet. Despite that, the DPC fixed prices at Rs162.50 and Rs1,050 was approved respectively.

PDLF President Dr Noor Mahar alleged that the pharmaceutical companies had bribed senior officials of DRAP and the health ministry.

He claimed that there were over 20 million hepatitis patients in Pakistan and 4,000 hepatitis patients who were silently dying from hepatitis complications every day. He alleged that Drap and the health ministry were deliberately keeping prices of medicines high.

Earlier on April 4, the young pharmacists and lawyers had alleged that the drug regulator was only registering expensive medicines which were either manufactured or imported by multinational companies while local manufacturers were deliberately not being allowed to register drugs, creating an artificial shortage of cheap lifesaving drugs for hepatitis C.

However, the national drug regulator in a statement had denied the allegations saying that the companies who were denied registration had failed to meet the set criteria for maintaining the quality and efficacy of drugs manufactured locally. Moreover, DRAP had claimed that some companies had lied about test data for their drugs.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2017.