Drug companies’ power to set prices suspended

The Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended the notification giving the power to fix the prices of medicines to the pharmaceutical companies and sought a response from the caretaker government.

Justice Shahid Karim of Lahore High Court heard the petition of citizen Muhammad Aslam challenging the notification of prescription of medicines.

The petition pointed out that the caretaker government had issued an illegal notification to fix the prices of medicines, which would lead to an increase in the prices of medicines.

It was contended in the petition that the caretaker government is removing the section for fixing the prices of drugs from the drug act and the caretaker government does not have the power to do so, therefore the decision should be declared null and void and the notification suspended till the final decision of the petition. should be done

Pakistan’s caretaker government has decided to deregulate the prices of all daily use medicines, except for a few essential medicines, after which pharmaceutical companies will be able to determine the prices of these medicines themselves.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) issued its formal notification on February 19 after the approval of the supervising federal cabinet.

After this decision of the federal cabinet, there is a possibility of an increase in the prices of medicines in the market because now the prices will be determined on the basis of supply and demand in the market.

According to the notification, the Drug Act, 1976 has been amended to empower pharmaceutical companies to fix the prices of drugs, eliminating the role of the drug regulatory authority. This decision of the government will apply to ‘non-essential medicines’ i.e. daily medicines.

Abdul Rauf, the owner of a drug manufacturing company, told Independent Urdu in this regard that drugs in Pakistan are divided into two categories, essential and daily use drugs, and about 70 percent of essential drugs and 30 percent of daily use drugs. Marah falls under the used category.

According to Abdul Raouf: ‘Now controlling the prices of daily use medicines such as fever, headache, blood pressure, antibiotics, anti-allergy and multivitamins will not be under the jurisdiction of the government, while the authority to increase the prices of life-saving medicines. It will be possible only with the approval of the cabinet.

He further said: ‘Increasing the prices of daily-use medicines by the caretaker government is part of the National Medicine Policy formulated by the government. Although this policy has not been made public yet, its implementation has already started.

Pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan have long been demanding that pricing be based on market demand.

Abdul Raouf said that many domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies are not able to make many medicines due to the increase in the dollar rate because they import many medicines and raw materials, which are paid in dollars. This makes the price higher in Pakistani rupees, but it makes it difficult to manufacture many drugs due to not allowing sale at higher prices, so this decision of the government is a positive step for the pharmaceutical industry and it will help to solve the drug crisis. can also be controlled.’

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