The government has saved many human lives Medicines The prices of 25 medicines have been increased, after which the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has also issued a notification of new prices.
According to the notification, these medicines include blood pressure and blood vessel dilators, various Diseases including injections, tablets, inhalers and syrups etc.
Drape According to the notification, the price of Lorica, a new registered drug for cancer treatment, has been increased to Rs. The new price of 20 tablets of Deephydralin has been fixed at Rs 192, the price of Chloroquine used in malaria has been fixed at Rs 1,077.
Similarly, the price of injectable bortezomib for cancer patients is 17 thousand 513 rupees and the price of Zerbexa used in infection is 15 thousand 356 rupees.
Samina Naeem, a resident of Rahmanpura area of Lahore, is a cancer patient and has to undergo a special injection every month after chemotherapy, but she is worried because of the price hike.
He told Independent Urdu: ‘I have been a cancer patient for a year and am undergoing treatment at Anmol Hospital in Lahore. I have two children and my husband has passed away, I support them by tutoring them. If the expenses are not met, how can I buy my medicine and that too expensive?’
She further said that after the death of her husband, she was diagnosed with cancer and the doctors at Anmol Hospital started treating her. They have to undergo chemotherapy every month, followed by an injection.
According to Samina: “The injection was four thousand rupees in the beginning, then it became six thousand rupees, but now its price has reached 10 thousand rupees.”
The reason for the increase in drug prices?
When this question was asked to the former chairman of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Mansoor Dilawar, he told Independent Urdu that ‘the raw materials for medicines manufactured in Pakistan come from other countries including India and China, which should be purchased in dollars. falls Due to the state of our economy and shortage of dollars, we have to buy raw materials at high cost, which affects the cost of medicines.’
He further informed that ‘DRAP increases the prices of such drugs with the approval of the government which we request that the cost of manufacturing the drug has become high for us so the price increase is allowed. Then the DRAP team investigates whether the cost of production of the drug has actually increased or not and after that they issue a notification fixing the new prices.’
According to Mansoor Dilawar: ‘When the cost of production increases, no company produces drugs at a loss, which creates a shortage of drugs in the market.
“The biggest problem we are facing these days is in LC toys due to the extraordinary rise in the value of the dollar and the scarcity of dollars. Due to these problems, the prices of drugs are continuously increasing and it is difficult to stop it because the dollar rate is not controlled by us and we are also facing shortages. Our local production of medicines is 90 per cent and we import 95 per cent of raw materials.’
In this regard, Amin Khalid, the leader of the Drug Retailers Association, said that “In Pakistan, not only are there drugs that have to import raw materials from other countries, but the rates of these drugs are also high, whose raw materials are locally sourced.” is obtained as
He further said: ‘There are many products including glucose, whose raw materials are also available from Pakistan, but their price is also high. Many foreign pharmaceutical companies manufacture medicines here, but they also keep the rates in terms of dollars.
What is the effect of repeated price increases on the market?
Ishaq Mayo, President of Drug Dealers Association, said in a conversation with Independent Urdu, “Since the economic crisis, the prices of medicines have increased six to seven times in one and a half years and they have increased by 18 to 20 percent.” Pharmaceutical companies often create drug shortages to increase profits so that the government blackmails them into allowing them to raise prices.
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He said: ‘Apart from medicines for which raw materials come from abroad, the rates of medicines prepared by taking raw materials from the local level are also fixed at will.
“Many foreign pharmaceutical companies in Balochistan get herbs from here and make medicines, but after preparing them, they send them to their offices abroad and put barcodes on them. The rate of these drugs is also kept at par with foreign drugs, so the government should stop the blackmailing of the companies and fix the price formula for a certain period so that the market also gets stable and the citizens also get cheap drugs. ‘
According to Isaac Mayo: ‘Whenever we buy medicines, the rate is low at the time of purchase but when the invoice comes, the price is often high, so we supply the goods to the stores in the market until then. We refrain from doing so until the invoice is received so that we can fix the rate accordingly.’
It may be noted that the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Wednesday (August 23) declared a batch of medicines produced by the company owned by Punjab caretaker health minister Professor Javed Akram’s wife as substandard and adulterated and recalled it from the market. have issued instructions and declared that it may pose a threat to people’s health.
In response to which the owner of the company, Shehla Javed, said in her statement, “The report of the Department of Health claimed that the drugs that were seized contained samples of paracetamol, which itself was a safe drug.”
“His company had already issued instructions to voluntarily recall this batch of the drug from the market keeping in mind the safety of the patients,” he added.
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