The country is facing acute shortage of medicines related to tuberculosis (TB), asthma, cancer, and child growth due to a sharp increase in raw material prices globally, officials and market sources said. According to the drug dealers and officials of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis AG stopped making tuberculosis drugs in Pakistan over pricing dispute.
The supply of TB medicine by Pfizer Inc has also witnessed a disruption, while a local TB drug maker, Schazoo Zaka has also cut production due to pricing dispute. "TB drugs Myrin, Myrin-P and Myrin-Fort, asthma medicine Fext-D, the medicines used for the growth of children and drugs used to control cancer patients' pain are totally unavailable in the market," Mohammad Sulman, a drug dealer in the federal capital told this correspondent on Friday.
They attributed the drug shortage to massive increase in global raw material prices and low prices set by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), which are far below the market rates.
Globally, the prices of some 200 molecules being used as raw material in manufacturing drugs for the treatment of various diseases have gone up manifold while in Pakistan the prices have been stagnant since decades as a result many leading companies have shut down their operations, Dr Qaiser Waheed Sheikh said.
Sheikh said that the price of Vitamin-C in global market has jumped from $10 to $400 per kg but in Pakistan over the past 15 years prices were not adjusted as per global market rates.
He said that the government has asked the each member of pharma industry to supply at least two drug items to the patients without any cost, but the majority of the industry members, especially multinational companies, shut down their operations instead of opting the proposal because no company can do this.
An official of the PPMA Abuzar said that drug raw material imports from China, devaluation of Pakistani rupee against dollar as well as no tangible increase in drug prices over the past 15 years have led to create serious shortage of various medicines in the country.
Mohammad Ajmal Gujjar, a pharmacist commenting on the issue said that the DRAP sets prices for about 320 critical medicines, but pricing caps have not been significantly raised since 2001, making it unviable for firms to make many of the drugs. He added that the issue has become particularly serious for TB drugs, saying that of 18 companies licensed to manufacture TB drugs in Pakistan, only two are working.
Doctors and public health officials said that shortage can lead to a rise in drug-resistant strains of TB with tens of thousands of patients are unable to get doses. The drugs include combinations of antibiotics and substitutes for patients with complications.
Commonly used medicines such as multivitamins, some antibiotics, heart and blood pressure medicines, medicines for flu and allergies and asthma inhalers for small children are not available in the market. Commonly used medicines such as multivitamins, some antibiotics, drugs for heart, blood pressure, flu and allergies, and asthma inhalers for small children are not available in the market.
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