ISLAMABAD: The government fulfilled a major demand of pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan on Friday by increasing the rates of essential lifesaving drugs to ensure their market availability amid a rapid depreciation of national currency against the US dollar.
The country has been facing an acute shortage of medicines for about a year, as their manufacturers decided to stop their production due to the rising cost of raw material in the international market which was further exacerbated by the devaluation of Pakistani rupee.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet considered a summary from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and “allowed the fixation of Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) of 18 new drugs as recommended by Drug Pricing Committee (DPC).”
“The prices of these 18 new drugs are at the lowest as compared to the prices of the same drugs in neighbouring countries, especially in India,” the ECC, a top federal body mandated to take economic decisions, said in a statement on Friday.
The committee also approved an increase in the prices of paracetamol products and fixed the rate of its 500-mg plain and extra tablet at Rs2.67 and Rs3.32, respectively.
The paracetamol products have been in short supply across Pakistan since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Last year, this shortfall worsened due to the devastating floods.
Approving another summary, the committee also reduced the prices of another 20 drugs without specifying their names.
An official of the ministry said these medicines were used to treat typhoid, malaria, depression, fever, kidney diseases, infertility, tuberculosis and ulcer.
The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association last week threatened to stop supplying medicines if the prices of the drugs were not increased within seven days. The manufacturers said they required the federal government’s approval to jack up the prices since they could not revise them on their own.
The association’s chairman, Syed Farooq could not be reached for a comment since he was “out of Karachi.”
Pakistan imports an estimated 95 percent of its pharmaceutical raw materials from China. The country’s direct trade with India has remained suspended since August 5, 2019, when the administration in New Delhi revoked the special constitutional status of the disputed Kashmir region. However, Islamabad is still importing pharmaceutical raw material from the neighboring state via Dubai.
