LAHORE: Reacting to the announcement of the Ministry of National Health Service Regulations & Coordination that there will be no immediate increase in drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry believes that the government's flouting with its own policy would result in further contraction of the industry.
Recently, a 10 percent price increase to the industry in line with CPI Inflation under its approved Drug Pricing Policy of 2018 was to be finalized compensating it for utilities and input cost increases. But the Ministry of National Health Service Regulations & Coordination announced that there will be no immediate increase in drug prices.
The notification states "Drug Pricing Policy 2018 granted the manufacturers an annual right to automatically increase prices by 7 percent and 10 percent without the government's right to intervene."
Drug Pricing Policy 2018 has been revised by the federal government to bring it in line with the Drug Act 1976 and to remove legal lacunae. In doing so, the government has created a step-in clause in Drug Pricing Policy whereby the government can exclude any category of drugs from annual increase of price, sources in the pharmaceutical industry said, adding: "DRAP has recently notified the amendments made by the government to Drug Pricing Policy 2018. The government has not approved any increase in the price of essential drugs as incorrectly reported in some media. All this was done in the backdrop of assurance given by the pharmaceutical industry that it will not apply for annual raise of drug prices at least till September 2020."
"The government is backtracking on its own given policy. Sadly, drug pricing has been made a political issue," said a local manufacturer. He added that the politicization of this issue is hurting the industry, employment and investment and this is happening just because the government is not considering this an industry.
"The companies need profits to invest and spend on research and development. The policy makers should also understand that the input cost of the companies has increased manifold in just one year," reasoned the manufacturer.
"The government needs to support the pharmaceutical industry of the country in order to help the informal employment of the country while the national economy is also to get a huge push this way," suggested the manufacturer. He added that the pharmaceutical industry is among the sunrise industries as per international organizations and it has a capacity to steer the national economy out of crisis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
Comments
Comments are closed.