No plan to reverse medicine price deregulation: officials

KARACHI: The government has no plan to roll back the deregulation of medicine prices introduced during the caretaker administration of Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, officials in the Ministry of National Health Services and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) said, dismissing claims by some parliamentarians that the policy was under review.

Senior officials said there was currently no proposal before the ministry or DRAP to reverse the deregulation framework. The policy, introduced in 2024 during caretaker set up continues to govern pricing of non-essential medicines, while essential and life-saving drugs remain subject to government price controls.

“There is no proposal under consideration to withdraw deregulation. The policy remains in place,” a senior health ministry official said, adding that the government was continuing to monitor the impact of the policy on medicine availability and prices.

Officials said recent public statements by some lawmakers had created the impression that the government was preparing to revisit or reverse the policy. However, internal assessments by the ministry and DRAP indicated that the market situation had stabilised after prolonged periods of shortages of several commonly used medicines.

A senior DRAP official said that under the previous system of tight price controls, manufacturers had struggled to sustain production of a number of low-margin medicines due to rising input costs, currency depreciation and inflation. “In some cases, production was reduced or discontinued, which contributed to supply gaps. Deregulation was intended to address these market distortions,” the official said.

According to officials, the current policy framework distinguishes between essential medicines, which remain under price regulation, and non-essential medicines, which are subject to market-based pricing with regulatory oversight. DRAP officials said pricing trends and market behaviour were being monitored to detect unusual or unjustified increases.

The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufactur-ers Association (PPMA), which represents local drug manufacturers, has also maintained that deregulation helped improve the availability of medicines that had previously disappeared from the market due to price ceilings. PPMA officials have said that outdated price caps, set without timely adjustments for inflation and exchange rate fluctuations, had made the production of some low-cost medicines commercially unviable, leading to persistent shortages in the past.

Health officials said reports from provincial drug regulators and hospital pharmacies suggested a reduction in complaints related to stock-outs of some routine medicines since the policy shift, although they noted that supply patterns continue to vary across products and regions.

At the same time, officials acknowledged concerns raised by lawmakers and civil society groups regarding affordability, particularly for low-income patients. They said the government was considering measures to strengthen price monitoring mechanisms, improve transparency in the pharmaceutical supply chain and enhance coordination with provincial authorities to address access concerns.

“There are concerns about affordability that need to be addressed through regulatory oversight and targeted interventions,” a health ministry official said. “The policy framework is being reviewed periodically to assess its impact on availability and pricing.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026