More life-saving drugs are reported to be missing from the market and even are not available at the government-run hospitals' pharmacies. The Network for Consumer Protection (NCP) has also revealed 13 essential drugs that are unavailable in the markets of Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahimyar Khan.
These medicines are used for heart diseases, asthma, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, eye diseases and abdominal tapeworms. According to The Network, lifesaving drugs missing from the market include Isosorbide Dinitrate, Salbutamol, Thyroxin, Glyceryltrnitrate, Dioxin, Phenobarbitone, Phenytoin, Prednisolone, Niclosamide, Benzathine Penicillin, Nifedipine, Nyfedipine, Nystatin, and Griseofulvin.
Local pharmacists also confirmed the shortage of some of the medicines with the claim that the disappeared medicines were causing serious problems for the patients. A patient of hypothyroidism Abdul Haseeb told that he was suffering from weakness and state of physical disorder due to non-availability of Thyroxin.
He said that he was purchasing Thyroxin (100 tablets packing) at Rs 5 to 6 but now he was buying at Rs 30 to 35. A pharmacy owner said that Phenytoin medicine was only available at big pharmacies of the city, adding its black marketing was on the rise. He said that another lifesaving medicine Phenobarbitone was missing from the market for the last couple of weeks.
An employee of pharmacy said that Griseofulvin medicine was not available because the government had banned this medicine due to some unknown reasons. Although, there was no shortage of Isosorbide Dinitrate, Salbutamol and Glyceryltrnitrate medicines in the market, they were being sold at high prices, a pharmacist said, when contacted. Despite the tall claims of authorities about improvement in the healthcare system in the country, almost half a dozen life-saving drugs, like "Isosobride Dinitrate" used for emergency treatment of heart attack, are not available even in the major cities of Pakistan.
Isosorbide Dinitrate and Glyceryltrnitrate are used to cure heart diseases, Nifedipine for angina pain and high blood pressure, Phenobarbitone is used for anti-convulsant, Phenytoin Na for Epilepsy, Niclosamide is meant to remove abdominal tape worm, Nystatin anti-fungal is used for skin fungal infections and Griseofulvin is used for skin, nails and scalp infection.
However, these drugs are either short or non-available at medical stores of the twin cities. The proper availability of essential medicines in Pakistan has been a major problem for long, which strengthens the impression that the Drug Control Authority has no control on the pharmaceutical sector. Both the government and the pharmaceutical industry have turned their deaf ear to the difficulties, which the general public is continuously facing due to shortage of life-saving or essential drugs.
"Pharmaceutical companies have a major role behind the disappearance of life-saving or essential drugs from the local market," remarked Executive Director of 'The Network for Consumer Protection; Ayaz Kiani on phone. These companies create artificial shortage of such drugs only to grab high profit, he maintained.
Factors such as merger of pharmaceutical industry, black- marketing, illegal imports, change in marketing strategy of companies and high profiting race of manufacturers have multiplied the difficulties of the poor and marginalised consumers.
Ensuring provision of majority of these drugs at minimal prices puts a question mark on performance of both government and the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, more intrinsic planning and vigorous actions are required from all stakeholders to improve availability of these essential drugs and control their escalating prices in the local market.
According to the Drug Act 1976, the Ministry of Health and pharmaceutical companies are bound to make essential drugs available in the country. The Drugs (Licensing, Registering and Advertising) Rules, 1976, Section 4 reads: "Every drug shall be produced in a sufficient quantity so as to ensure its regular and adequate supply in the market", and Section 5 says: "The manufacturer of any drug shall not, without the prior approval of the registration board, be discontinued for a period, which may result in its shortage."
It is the big profit, which forces pharmaceutical companies to create an artificial shortage of essential drugs and consequently shoot up their prices. The main responsibility of maintaining smooth supply of a drug in market lies with the government and the Drug Control Authority. If a particular company does not sustain supply of its previous drug, it should not be allowed to get any other drug registered unless or until it resumes supply of its previous medicine in market.
When contacted, Drug Controller Islamabad, Dr Farnaz Malik, said if a company stops manufacturing medicine, its supply would be suspended in Pakistan. "So how could we have that medicine in the market," she asked.
She said that besides pointing figure at the flaws of the Health Ministry, the media should also highlight the achievements the health authorities had made in this important sector that directly relates to the human health.
Health authorities said, the report had erroneously mentioned the non-availability of even those drugs that had been banned by the ministry in view of the risk it posed to health. The drugs were banned when risk-benefit ratio was compromised, he added.
Regarding availability of medicines of Panadol range, the spokesman said fifty brands of the range manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies were available in the market. All dosage forms of Magnopyrol (Metamizole) including Novalgin had been banned since May 2006 and withdrawn from the market, he said.
Distalgesic Tablets (Co-Proxamol) including all the brands of this formulation were being phased out due to severe hepatotoxicity and suicidal tendency, he said, adding the drug was also being misused by drug addicts. Similarly, Metodine formulations had been show caused for the cancellation of their registration due to side effects and its manufacturing had been discontinued, he said.
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