Prices of entire range of medicines have witnessed yet another increase of 10-100 percent during the last 10 months and this fourth increase in drug prices is owing to ineffective monitoring system, a survey conducted by Business Recorder revealed, here on Tuesday.
Traders at Bohari Bazaar, the wholesales drug market in Rawalpindi which supplies medicines to entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Potohar region, while talking to Businesses Recorder attributed the current increase in the medicine prices to the absence of government's monitoring system.
Traders said that during the past 10 months this was the fourth increase in the medicine prices which couldn't be justified in the name of rupee depreciation or increase in input costs as in January 2019 the government allowed pharmaceutical industry to increase the drug prices but the industry since then has continuously increased the medicine prices. They further said that in April the drug manufacturers increased drug prices in the range of 15-300 percent and in August the pharmaceutical companies brought another increase in the medicines' prices.
Now the drug manufactures have once again increased the prices of all the produce in the range of 10-100 percent, traders said. They said that most of the cancer treatment drugs are being imported and over the past one year as a result of rupee depreciation, cancer medicine prices have witnessed at least 30-40 percent increase.
The survey observed price of tab coplavix used by cardiac patients have jumped up from Rs 270 to Rs 309 per pack, price of tab tritace used by blood pressure patients increased from Rs 368 to Rs 560.10 per pack, price of syrup mucaine used for gastric treatment went up from Rs 50 to Rs 59.10 per pack, price of Tab acabel used for pain treatment increased from Rs 130-170 per pack and price of Tab Rifaxa used for the treatment of hepatitis jumped up from Rs 510 to 609.85 per pack. Moreover Nilsat drops used for the treatment of fungal infections of the mouth went up from Rs 48 to Rs 72.56 per bottle, antibiotic syrup Augmentin price jumped up from Rs 116 to Rs 210 per syrup, antibiotic capsule Amoxil price jumped up from Rs 830 to Rs 1,050 per pack of 100 capsules, syrup Calpol used for the treatment of fever went up from Rs 42 per syrup to Rs 63 per syrup, price of syrup Caviscon used for treatment of stomach problems went up from Rs 74 per syrup to Rs 104, price of tab Inosita used for the treatment of sugar problems went up from Rs 336 per pack to Rs 560 per pack, capsule Evion 400 mg price went up from Rs 444 per pack to Rs 551.97 per pack, and price of tab Ascard used for the treatment of blood pressure increased from Rs 43 per pack to Rs 56 per pack.
Similarly, the price of injection Humulin 70/30 used by diabetic patients increased from Rs 648 per pack to Rs 888 per pack, Eytofen drops used for the treatment of allergies price went up from Rs 150 per pack to Rs 250 per pack, Softin ear drop price increased from Rs 59 to Rs 70 per pack and Advantan cream price went up from Rs 176 per pack to Rs 255 per pack.
According to drug dealers at wholesales market, the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry over the years kept on demanding the government to increase the drug prices as per inflation but the government didn't allow the industry to hike the prices, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which allowed rupee depreciation, gave go-ahead to drug companies in January 2019 to increase medicine rates in the range of 15-300 percent.
A drug dealer Kamran Chaudhary in Rawalpindi said the government in first instance in January 2019 allowed only 9-15 percent increase in drug prices but the pharmaceutical companies jacked up the prices from 15-300 percent.
Kamran added that prices of the medicines including those for blood pressure, diabetes, stomach and cardiac problems have been increased up to 100 percent.
This correspondent kept on contacting DRAP spokesman to know the reasons behind recent escalation in drug prices but his mobile number was switched off and there wass no response as well from official contact numbers.
According to McKenzie, a global medicine market research company's 2019 report, pharmaceutical industries in all South Asian countries excluding Pakistan are growing twice as compared to their national growth rate. For instance, Indian pharmaceutical industry that was three times larger than Pakistan some 20 years ago is now $36 billion industry. According to McKenzie, the industry is destined to reach $50 billion in three years. Pakistan's pharmaceutical industry stands at $3 billion and is declining. The country's medicine exports are stagnant at less than $200 million and even witnessed a decline last year. India, on the other hand, is the largest exporter of generic drugs in the world with exports exceeding $19 billion last year.
Comments
Comments are closed.