The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday was informed that a summary regarding drug pricing regulatory policy has been prepared by the federal government, which would be sent to Prime Minister for his approval shortly.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar was seized with the hearing of a petition filed by Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and others against Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) that issued a notification withdrawing its earlier notification with immediate effect regarding hike in drug prices on the directives of Prime Minister.
They submitted that prices of pharmaceutical products manufactured in Pakistan were increased last time in 2001 and since then those were never increased. They said that a meeting of policy board of DRAP was held on 23 October 2013 and was attended by the government officials and representatives of PPMA.
They said that in the meeting, it was decided that interim relief may be granted to the industrialists by increasing drug prices and a committee was constituted to deliberate on the matter in detail, analyse market data and disease prevalence in the country. The petitioner stated that in view of decision of board and further deliberation by the committee, a notification was issued by DRAP, whereby a 15 percent hike was allowed in the price of every medicine, except lifesaving drugs. They said that later a notification was issued on the directives of the prime minister withdrawing earlier notification on November 29, 2013.
They said that PM had no authority to pass any such order and added that the notification was issued illegally and without giving opportunity of hearing them. Therefore, they said that notification was liable to be suspended. The SHC earlier on December 23, 2013 had suspended the notification withdrawing hike in drug prices.
Federal law officer Sajjid Ilyas Bhatti told the court that a summary regarding drug pricing regulatory policy has been prepared by federal government, which would be sent to Prime Minister for his approval shortly. The court directed him to place the summary before prime minister so that it may be decided by him to enable the court to pass appropriate order on the petition.
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