ISLAMABAD: An artificial shortage of some critical medicines including painkillers such as Panadol Extra, Panadol syrup, Brofin syrup, and epilepsy tablets persist in the market while these drugs are available at higher rates in the black market.
According to drug dealers and distributors, eye drops Alcaline which are used after eye operation, are also not available in the market. Moreover, insulin treatment medicine Mixtard30 millilitre is also not available to the patients. They further said that blood pressure control tablets Dioven80 milligram and tablet Exforge 5/80 mg are also not available.
However, drug dealers and traders while talking to Business Recorder said this time there was no shortage of cough-related medicines in the market and significant stocks of alternate painkillers tablets and syrups were available in the market.
Tablet Epival 250 mg/500 mg and tablet Rivotil are prescribed for patients suffering from head injuries and other brain-related injuries but are not available in the market.
Owing to the persistent shortage of the above drugs, the black marketers have started taking full advantage of the situation as they are selling a 10 millilitre vial of insulin 70/30 in the range of Rs 1,500 against the earlier price of Rs 1,000.
According to medical experts, the pancreas of a person suffering from type-1 diabetes cannot release insulin, so doctors recommend insulin 70/30.
Similarly, the medicines used for the management of epilepsy and mental illnesses are short in supply in the wholesale market. Common epilepsy drug Tegral is priced at Rs260, but it is being sold in the black market for Rs500. The original price of another epilepsy drug Epival is Rs 1,100, but it is available in the black market for Rs 1,400.
Pharmaceutical companies have also unilaterally increased prices of over-the-counter medicines, such as those used for the treatment of common cold, cough, and sore throat. A box of Strepsils, containing 150 tablets, is being sold for Rs 2,100 against its earlier price of Rs 1,500.
Patients while urging the federal government, provincial governments and pharma industry to restore the full supply of these medicines have complained that since 2018 medicine prices are on the raise, but still supply has not fully restored as a result they are forced to pay additional money.
People say that in times of rising inflation it is becoming increasingly difficult to earn two square meals let alone getting treatment, while the increase in the drugs prices has made it impossible to buy medicines for common medical problems.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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