Pharmaceutical companies have forewarned the government that if the relevant authorities do not seriously consider the increased input cost of medicines, they will increase prices of their own accord.
The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA), in a press conference, has given the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) a one-week deadline to adopt due emergency measures for the very survival of the drug industry.
Otherwise, PPMA stated that “it would be left with no option but to take extreme measures including price adjustments on its own to ensure availability of essential medicines in the country.”
PPMA Chairman, Qazi Mansoor Dilawar said “The price of medicines was fixed when the dollar was at parity of Rs150. However, a 60% hike in the dollar does not leave their business viable.”
Speaking to the Express Tribune, the former PPMA chairman, Zahid Saeed said, “They kept requesting DRAP to revisit prices of their products. If these are not economically viable, the industries will stop making the medicines, to the ultimate loss of the local population.”
On 24 August, 2022, the Islamabad High Court directed DRAP to listen to the stakeholders and come up with a solution but the authorities have failed to proceed.
“Now we are forced to take any required steps, including going to court for contempt of court by DRAP. What can we do in this situation when the regulator doesn’t answer,” lamented Zahid.
“Industry margins are suffering severely, so this will be a very important step,” Taurus Securities Head of Research, Mustafa Mustansir told the Express Tribune.
Read Drug prices touching the sky as supplies dry up
“Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) which are raw materials for medicine are mostly imported,” explained Mustansir.
“The media has already reported that around 100 essential medicines are no longer available in the market. We don’t want this situation to exacerbate any further to protect the interests of patients across the country,” said Dilawar.
The PPMA leaders said that “In the past few months, DRAP has completely failed to discharge its obligations concerning the availability of essential medicines in the market at reasonable rates.”
“Pakistan is going through the biggest health challenge after the pandemic in the form of a massive outbreak of lethal infectious diseases among the communities displaced due to floods. Therefore, availability of essential medicines has become extremely crucial in these testing times,” emphasised the PPMA chairman.
He further underlined that “DRAP was under a strict obligation to immediately convene the meeting of its policy board to adopt emergency measures to ensure that the drug industry continues with its production without any interruption in the best interest of the patients.”
“DRAP is under lawful obligation, as per the Drug Act-1976, to ensure the availability of safe, efficacious, and potent drugs in the market at reasonable rates that are equally acceptable to the consumers and the industry,” explained Dilawar.
He bemoaned it was highly lamentable that DRAP in the past few months had completely failed to discharge its responsibilities in this regard
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