According to newspaper reports Federal Minister for Health Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani said the ministry had increased prices of some drugs from 15 to 45 percent, terming the increase as inevitable.
The minister supported the increase and said the raise was unavoidable owing to the reason that cost of manufacturing the drugs had increased and the current prices of these medicines were making it virtually impossible for the related pharmaceutical companies to produce them.
This is the official confirmation of drugs price hike otherwise pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices manifold before the approval by the ministry.
Officially the increase is only 45 percent but the real increase is more than that. There is no doubt that the cost of production must have increased but the pharma industry has done injustice by unilaterally doing this and forcing the government to accept this. Manufacturers also indulge in unfair practices by creating an artificial shortage of medicines.
A multivitamin syrup, which was available at Rs 40 before shortage and after a reasonable period its price was increased to Rs 65. The government must take steps to curb this tendency and save the poor from being fleeced.
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