105 essential medicines: Delays in price revisions triggers shortages

KARACHI: More than two years after Pakistan’s drug pricing regulators recommended price revisions for 105 hardship-category medicines, the federal government has yet to approve the proposals, leaving manufacturers unable to sustain production and triggering shortages of dozens of essential and life-saving medicines, pharmaceutical industry sources said.

The prolonged delay has now resulted in widespread shortages of several critical medicines used to treat cancer, heart disease, glaucoma and other serious medical conditions, affecting hospitals and pharmacies across the country.

Among the medicines that are either unavailable or in critically short supply are oral morphine capsules (10mg and 30mg) used for severe cancer pain, streptokinase injections for heart attacks, chemotherapy drugs including cisplatin, carboplatin and doxorubicin, pediatric digoxin liquid, pilocarpine eye drops, the yellow fever vaccine, folic acid tablets, and several immunoglobulin products, according to pharmaceutical industry representatives.

Abdul Samad Buddani, Chairman of the Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA), warned that prolonged shortages of genuine medicines were creating opportunities for counterfeiters and illegal suppliers to fill the gap.

“When authentic medicines disappear from the market, patients become desperate and often turn to unreliable sources. That increases the risk of counterfeit and substandard medicines entering the supply chain, particularly expensive cancer medicines and other life-saving drugs,” he said.

Buddani said successive governments had delayed decisions on hardship-category medicines despite clear recommendations from the pricing committee, discouraging manufacturers from continuing production of several essential medicines.

The association urged the federal government to immediately approve DRAP’s recommendations for all 105 medicines so that manufacturers could resume production and restore supplies.

“If manufacturers cannot recover even the basic cost of producing essential medicines, production simply cannot continue. The pricing policy exists to ensure these medicines remain available to patients, and timely decisions are necessary to achieve that objective,” Samad said.

He urged the authorities to immediately intervene and resolve the issue.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026