August 12, 2007	Sunday	Rajab 27, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) on Saturday announced a 30-40 per cent reduction in the prices of life-saving drugs.

Addressing a press conference, PPMA Punjab chapter chairman Muhammad Asad said the companies that are members of the association would be reducing prices of their products over the next fortnight.

The PPMA represents the local pharmaceutical industry.

The reduction in prices, the PPMA representative said, had been made possible because of decline in the prices of raw material in the international market by about 50 per cent during the last three years.

The announcement comes at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding irrational drug pricing.

Mr Asad believed the reduction in prices would ultimately force the multinational companies to cut the prices of their products, too. Interestingly, the MNCs are lobbying for increase in the prices of medicines on the ground that the prices had not been reviewed for over five years.

Lashing out at the multinational companies, Mr Asad said they were maintaining high prices of their medicines on the pretext of patent rights, although patent rights of 90 per cent of the medicines in the market had ended.

The MNCs, he contended, should have slashed the prices of their products by 30-50 per cent with the end of their patent rights.