Government decision to cut interferon price: Pharm firm gets stay order from SHC

A multinational pharmaceutical company engaged in the manufacture of peg interferon has taken a stay order from the Sindh High Court against a recent government decision regarding reduction in the price of injection from Rs13,000 to Rs6,500 and removing the offer of 'buy one get one free'.
Sources told Business Recorder: "The Drug Regulatory Authority Ordinance (DRAO) will expire in October and the Ministry of National Regulations and Services has not even convinced members of the Senate's Standing committee to present the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan Bill, 2012 in Senate that would address all components of drugs manufacturing and its sales." "If DRAO expires and the government does not succeed in presenting it in the Upper House (of parliament) to convert it into an 'Act' then the (domestic) pharmaceutical industry would again have to suffer a lot in the form of pending issues of registration and certification of new medical products and new medicine companies, including Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (COPP), Free Sale Certificate and Certificate of Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP), considerable increase in import and export of drugs and reduction in overall investment in the pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan," sources added.
"The recent decision of the government to considerably reduce prices of 92 drugs has led four renowned pharmaceutical companies to take stay orders from the Lahore High Court while the rest have (simply) stopped manufacturing these medicines, creating a severe shortage of these drugs in the domestic market," sources added. Reportedly, there are around 1,000 medicines where the difference between cost and sale price is considerable.