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Pakistan is witnessing a severe shortage of more than 100 essential medicines, including several life-saving drugs used to treat cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses, amid prolonged delays by the federal government in approving revised medicine prices, as reported by Dawn.
According to Dawn, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) recommended revised prices for 105 hardship category medicines more than two years ago after concluding that soaring production costs had made their manufacturing commercially unviable. However, the proposals remain pending with the federal cabinet, resulting in reduced production and widespread shortages across the country. Drap found that increasing prices of imported raw materials, electricity, fuel, packaging, transportation, labour, financing costs and the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee had significantly raised manufacturing expenses. Pharmaceutical companies argue that the current pricing policy no longer allows them to recover production costs, forcing several manufacturers to either reduce output or discontinue the supply of essential medicines. The shortage has affected a broad range of medicines, including oral morphine for cancer patients, streptokinase injections used in heart attack treatment, chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin and doxorubicin, paediatric digoxin, pilocarpine eye drops, and yellow fever vaccines. Abdul Samad Buddani of the Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association stated that the continued absence of genuine medicines is creating opportunities for counterfeit and substandard products to enter the market. He said desperate patients are increasingly forced to rely on unreliable sources, raising concerns over the safety and authenticity of medicines, particularly expensive cancer treatments and other critical drugs, as highlighted by Dawn. Industry representatives have urged the government to immediately approve the pending hardship pricing cases, arguing that further delays will worsen shortages and disrupt healthcare services. A senior representative of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association said manufacturers cannot continue producing essential medicines if they are unable to recover even basic production costs, as reported by Dawn. (ANI)
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