Certain pharmaceutical companies have increased prices of a select group of drugs during the past two months, reveals a survey carried out by Business Recorder on Thursday. These companies increased the prices without the permission from the regulatory body. The government is in the process of launching drug pricing policy which makes it mandatory for companies to freeze prices of drugs/medicines till June 2016 at the level of 2013.
The survey noted that the price of tetanus vaccine manufactured by Amson Vaccine & Pharma (Pvt) Ltd was jacked up from Rs 420 per pack (10 injections) to Rs 795 per pack during the period. Price of cough syrup Hydryllin manufactured by Searle Company Ltd increased from Rs 30 to Rs 65 during the last two months. Antibiotic Syrup Ceclor manufactured by AGP Private Ltd is selling at Rs 377 against Rs 328. Tablet Augmentin BD manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline is selling at Rs 179 per bottle against Rs 155 per bottle price two months ago. Fungal infection cream Hydrozole manufactured by Stiefel, GSK, is available at Rs 152 against previous Rs 80. Amoxil capsules manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline are available at Rs 861 per pack against Rs 749 per pack two months ago. Novartis has increased the price of Voltral Gel by Rs 196 and now it is available at Rs 257 against Rs 61. Merck has increased the price of Pcam tablets (rheumatic disease) by Rs 22 per pack as Pcam tablets are now available at Rs 139 per packet against Rs 117. Hilton Pharma has increased the price of tablet Methycobal by Rs 194 per pack (100 tablets) from Rs 1,270 to Rs 1,464.
However, prices of low-cost medicines such as panadol, paracetamol and flagyl are stable. The survey observed that Unani medicine companies such as Hamdard, Ajmal, Ashraf, Marhaba and Qurshi have increased the prices of their products by 60 to 70 percent without the approval of the government. Lungzole Cough Syrup manufactured by Ashraf Laboratories, Faisalabad have increased price by Rs 25 per syrup from Rs 60 to Rs 85, Qurshi Laboratories have increased the price of Gestofil by Rs 30 per syrup from Rs 50 to Rs 80.
Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Co-ordination (MNHSRC) has sent the draft drug pricing policy to the Prime Minister's Office for approval; however the PM has yet to go through the policy due to his busy schedule, sources told Business Recorder.
According to Pakistan Pharma Bureau, medicine prices have not been revised in the country since 2001. "When we are comparing the prices of different widely-used medicines in India and Pakistan, the prices of about 70 percent of the top 100 medicines are higher in India than in Pakistan," a representative of the Bureau said requesting anonymity.
The pharmaceutical industry said that its recommendations about the proposed drug pricing policy were ignored by the health ministry and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and strongly rejected the draft drug pricing policy, arguing that input cost for drug manufacturing has risen manifold since 2001 while the government is going to freeze drug prices till June 2016, which would make their production financially unviable.
In addition, the policy if approved and implemented will discourage future investment in the sector, pharma industry maintained.
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