The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has notified 25 percent reduction in prices of 89 medicines on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan after the federal cabinet reduced the prices in its meeting on December 25, 2019.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has said that the federal cabinet had decided to reduce prices of 89 medicines by 15 per cent. He said the prices of several life-saving drugs have also been reduced. The decision has now come into force with the notification.

The prices of the medicines have been reduced under the Drug Regulatory Act. Prime Minister Imran Khan in his instructions urged for an immediate implementation on the decision and directed stern against those taking more amount than the fixed price.

"The decision has been taken under the Medicine Pricing Policy 2018," he said. The decision of drugs prices reduction will come into fore forthwith, he added. The policy will be reviewed and a new policy will be announced soon, he further said.

In January 2019, following regular depreciation of Pakistani currency the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) allowed pharma companies to increase the medicine prices up to 15 percent but in market the drug rates in first phase were hiked from 15 percent to 300 percent.

The DRAP, working under Ministry of National Health Services, had allowed pharmaceutical companies in January 2019 to increase the prices of the medicine from 9 to 15 percent. Later the pharmaceutical companies taking the benefit of weak price checking mechanism further increased the prices of several products up to 100 percent.

According to medicine traders, over the past year the pharmaceutical companies increased drugs prices for five times on one pretext or the other. The officials of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association (PPMA) said that the worldwide only lifesaving drugs are regulated but in Pakistan the government is regulating the price of every medicine.

They added that over the past 17 years rupee exchange rate against US dollar has reached from Rs 60 per dollar to Rs 160 per US dollar but drug prices have been kept frozen since 2001-02. While during the same period every input cost from labour to raw material, gas and petrol price increased manifold, but industry was not allowed to increase the prices as per rates of inputs.

According to PPMA, the country is facing financial loss of Rs 150 billion per annum due to frozen drug prices, while national pharmaceutical exports have declined from $250 million to $100 million over the five to six years.

According to PPMA, over the past two year around 125 new medicines related to cancer, heart diseases and other serious diseases have been introduced worldwide but Pakistanis can't take the advantage of these drugs as there is no pricing mechanism for new drugs.