Price of life

After a period of nearly three months, during which patients suffered a huge increase in the prices of vital drugs, including those used to control high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac conditions and other physical and mental health concerns, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has frozen the stocks of 31 pharmaceutical companies and stopped the production of 143 drugs. The measures came on the orders of the federal health minister. For weeks, all across the country patients and their attendants had been struggling to cope with a drug price hike that in many cases had doubled the prices of commonly used medicines and put them beyond the reach of a large number of users in need of these medications. The Lahore High Court had been moved against the price hike a short while ago. While DRAP had in January this year permitted pharmaceutical companies, which form a powerful lobby, a 15 percent increase in drug prices – already creating some degree of hardship for ordinary people – many companies had taken advantage of this and raised prices up to 100 percent. This situation naturally meant an immense burden on those who required medications of many different kinds and a consequent increase in their suffering. Drugs have also disappeared from the market, creating the additional strain of searching for medicines required in critical circumstances.While we hope the DRAP action will bring some relief to patients, this will happen only if the new price boundaries are respected. Often, when the price of a particular item rises, it continues to be sold at this new rate even when fresh cost directives or regulation comes in. The government and DRAP will need to guard against this. Medicines of course are an item that should be available to all patients at accessible prices. As it is, the prices for drugs in Pakistan are the highest in the South Asian region, with both India and Bangladesh selling generic versions of the same drug and thereby enabling people to buy them at far lower costs than those charged by big pharma brands. As the relief measures come into place, action is also required to bring vital drugs back on the shelves. Many have vanished amidst the current pricing chaos and an increase in costs put in place by companies as they supply new stocks of the same medicine. They will now need to take a step back and revert to approved prices. At the same time, we need an investigation into how the problem was allowed to happen given that it jeopardised the lives and welfare of tens of thousands of people across the country. Their suffering should not go unnoticed and answers need to be offered up to them.

from The News International - Editorial http://bit.ly/2WQbLeb