Life-saving drugs made unaffordable

As most low-income families struggle to afford the bare necessities, the increase in costs of expensive life-saving drugs has dimmed the treatment prospects of numerous ailing patients.

While the Sehat Insaf Card facilities had already been limited due to a paucity of funding, the recent spike in costs of life-saving drugs for chronic diseases like cancer, hypertension and diabetes mellitus, by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), has stirred discontent among low-income patients and their families, who resent the increased unaffordability of their treatment plan.

Suliman Khan, the son of a cancer patient at the Hayatabad Medical Complex expressed his frustration when he could no longer buy his mother’s chemotherapy medications.

“Just one chemotherapy medicine is costing us Rs100,000, which is out of our limits,” resented Khan, further adding,” first they suspended the coverage of cancer treatment under the Sehat Card and now they have increased the cost of cancer drugs as well.”

According to sources, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved a 14 per cent increase in prices of lifesaving drugs, including alkylating agents, diuretics, antibiotics, antihistamines, antidiuretics and antidiabetics for mortal health conditions like cancer, hypertension, bacterial infection, anaphylaxis, diabetes insipidus and diabetes mellitus.

Since life-threatening diseases require an immediate administration of the desired medication, the surging prices of these categories of drugs meant that numerous patients were left to succumb to their illness.

Muhammad Janas Khan who was found buying medicines at a pharmacy for his father reported seeing many buyers leave essential medications for their loved ones since they could no longer afford them.

“Their behavior is justified since the prices of life-saving drugs have almost tripled. Every government makes big promises that they will ensure free treatment but in reality, they have risked the lives of countless patients by making treatment even more expensive,” lambasted Janas.

Speaking to the Express Tribune on the matter, Aslam Pervez, General Secretary of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P) at Pakistan Chemist and Druggist Association acknowledged the plight of lowincome patients in hospitals across K-P due to the spike in costs of 29 life-saving medications but felt that the peaking dollar rate and high reliance on foreign drug companies was to blame.

“Since our local stocks of drug chemicals are akin to none, local pharmaceutical companies import raw materials in dollars and since the dollar rate is peaking the costs of medicines have also gone up. I will request DRAP to review the prices of medicines and monitor the pricing policies of drug manufacturers," assured Pervez