KARACHI: Around 40 medicines that have already been registered in Pakistan remain unavailable to patients because the federal government has yet to approve their prices.
The delay has left thousands of patients, including those battling cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases, with limited treatment options, forcing many to depend on costly personal imports or smuggled and unregistered medicines.
The pending medicines include Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), one of the world’s leading immunotherapy drugs approved internationally for more than 20 cancers, including lung, breast, cervical, kidney, bladder, stomach and skin cancers. Other important cancer medicines awaiting price notification include Nivolumab, Irinotecan, Dasatinib and Leucovorin.
The list also includes Humador insulin for diabetes management in a country where more than 35 million people are living with diabetes, Adalimumab for autoimmune diseases, recombinant Factor VIII for haemophilia A, Carbidopa-Levodopa for Parkinson’s disease, Dabigatran and Heparin for preventing blood clots, Methyldopa for hypertension during pregnancy, broad-spectrum antibiotics such as Meropenem and Fosfomycin, Ketamine for anaesthesia, as well as vaccines, radiology contrast agents and other medicines used in intensive care units and emergency departments.
Health experts say the prolonged delay has left many patients with no option but to obtain medicines through informal channels, exposing them to the risks of counterfeit, substandard or improperly stored products.
According to DRAP, recommendations for fixing the prices of the 40 medicines were finalised by the Drug Pricing Committee between December 2024 and June 2025 and subsequently endorsed by the DRAP Policy Board before being forwarded to the federal government.
The case was later considered by the Cabinet Committee, which decided that the ministers for finance and health would brief the prime minister before resubmitting the proposals for approval. Prices can only be notified after receiving final clearance from the federal government.
The price approval process is overseen by a Cabinet Committee headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.
Initially comprising the ministers for finance, health and commerce, the committee was later expanded to include the ministers for housing and works, climate change and environmental coordination, and defence production before recommendations are forwarded to the federal cabinet.
Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association Chairman Abdul Samad Buddani said patients were being forced to search for medicines that should already have been available through licensed pharmacies.
“When genuine medicines are unavailable in the legal market, desperate patients end up buying smuggled, counterfeit or substandard products. Such medicines may fail to cure patients and, in some cases, could even cost lives,” he warned.
The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) has also urged the federal government to expedite the approval process, saying pharmaceutical companies cannot legally market newly registered medicines until official prices are notified. It said continued delays were denying Pakistani patients timely access to innovative therapies routinely available in many other countries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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