EDITORIAL: Reports that serious differences between pharmaceutical manufacturers and the drug regulatory authority are threatening to turn into a full-blown crisis are cause for very serious concern as local companies mull ceasing production of several drugs; causing shortage of a number of medicines in the market.
It turns out that the so-called commodity super cycle in the international market has priced a lot of very important raw materials out of the reach of local producers, and unless the government allows them to raise prices, pretty much across the board, they’ll have no option but to stop manufacturing altogether. This situation has been worsening for at least three weeks, with supply of drugs for tuberculosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, cardiovascular diseases, and a lot of other ailments, already nowhere to be found.
This is very bad news for the people and the government. The former cannot do without important medicines, surely, and the last thing the latter can do is allow an across-the-board price hike in pharmaceuticals only weeks after it got the drubbing of a lifetime in the Punjab by-elections precisely because of runaway inflation.
And while the official regulatory body hasn’t commented about it on record yet, there’s enough chatter to suggest that the pharma lobby might be overplaying the severity of the problem only to raise prices all over the shelf and make much fatter profits. If true, it would amount to outright market manipulation, which is why the government’s stamp of approval would be crucial.
These complications only underscore the need to move very fast on this matter and the government is already guilty of being very slow off the mark. This, then, is just one more instance of it being just too busy playing political chess with the opposition to give the people’s real needs the attention they deserve. Let’s not forget that the people have already paid through their nose for this senseless game of thrones that is all the rage in Pakistan at the moment.
For, it was this game that led the previous administration to freeze energy prices and compromise the IMF (International Monetary Fund) bailout programme, and it was the people, not the government or the opposition, that eventually bore the brunt of less subsidies and more taxes just to revive the facility.
And now that the ruling party has had to take back the fixed tax for traders and retailers, to protect its precious vote bank more than anything else, the people also have a mini-budget to look forward to since they will have to make up for the shortfall in tax revenue without which the IMF will not play ball for the remainder of the programme.
It wasn’t too long ago that the previous (PTI) government had the smart idea of pumping up the pharma sector to turn it into a leading export earner. That clearly didn’t work out, and it’s still far too dependent on imports for its production base to plan any big expansion outside the country.
Yet things have got so bad that even these necessary concerns will have to go down the priority list till supply of all essential medicines is restored. This problem is already a month old, so a lot of people must have started suffering because of it, especially those who depend on life saving drugs.
It is now for all stakeholders to get together and hammer out a solution that will not just look good on paper but also solve problems on the ground. But it’s for the government to do whatever needs to be done to fix the supply chain first.
The people have already been put through far too many unnecessary problems. And they can do without the agony of suffering, or seeing their loved ones suffer, because one sector allegedly saw an opportunity to make a killing and wanted to arm-twist the government into legitimizing it.
If a proper, formal investigation hasn’t even identified the real cause for this problem yet, one can only wonder how long a practical solution will take.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022