Pharmaceuticals unilaterally increase drug prices,want 100 pc rise in prices

Lahore: The influential pharmaceutical industry has unilaterally hiked price of thousands of drugs by eighteen per cent which is illegal as permission of authorities was not sought.

The industry has been pushing authorities to allow almost 100 per cent hike in the prices of pharmaceutical products in absence of a national drug policy and flawed drug pricing mechanism which is heavily tilted towards industrialists ignoring masses, President Health Watch Mian Aftab said Monday.

In a statement issued here today, he said that prices of drugs in Pakistan are already more than any neighbouring county and the recent increase will make life difficult for millions using lifesaving and commonly-used medicines.

Masses will have to bear around Rs 100 billion additionally per annum on healthcare expenditure, he said.

The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association has already written a letter to its members asking them to increase prices which is unjustified, illegal and violation of laws, Mian Aftab informed.

He said that in this era of double digit inflation, the government should not allow increase in prices of drugs used to treat common ailments like flue, fever, malaria and diarrhoea, which affect millions of Pakistanis.

Government’s failure to finalize a national drug policy has enormously benefited drug manufacturers and badly hurt consumers as the country was not likely to have the policy soon and the prices will be increased arbitrarily, he noted.

Authorities are only concerned about supporting drug industry and allowing more profits on the pretext of the rising inflation and depreciation’s in the currency but would avoid masses who have also been suffering due to the same factors.