KARACHI: Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) has appealed to the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to help end the crisis that has badly hit the local pharmaceutical industry.
In a statement issued on Friday, a PPMA spokesperson said series of measures were required to be taken by the government to save the industry from heavy losses.
Expressing serious reservations about the newly proposed drug policy she regretted that the Health Ministry and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had ignored their recommendations before sending the proposed drug policy draft to the Prime Minister for approval.
PPMA spokesperson said no description about a raise in frozen costs of medicines for no less than 15 past years has been mentioned in the proposed drug policy, which is matter of a great concern.
"After the freezing of medicines prices in 2001, the cost of production & utility services, transport and other expenses has now risen by 300pc but ironically nothing has been done to pull pharmaceutical industry out of the current financial crises," she said.
The crisis hit pharmaceutical industry will face more losses if prices of medicines are not raised on priority basis, said the PPMA official.
It was also mentioned that about 100 pharmaceutical factories had been closed during last 15 years and more are feared to face closure.
"Five hundred thousand people are directly linked to this industry," said the spokesperson mentioning that the delay in the price raise will cause shortage of medicines in the market.
" Ultimately sale of substandard and smuggled medicines will get a boost, which will endanger the health of millions of patients in the country," warned the official.
It was also mentioned that Policy Board, Drug Control Authority, in its estimation, had stated that there should be raise of 97 percent in the medicine prices of the pharmaceutical industry.
The 15 percent interim raise was approved by the government in 2013, which too was withdrawn, reminded the official.
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