October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 30: The Sindh Health Department will present a detailed report in the Supreme Court about the causes of the mounting medicine prices on Monday.

Briefing the media on the report, Sindh Senior Minister for Health and Coordination Syed Sardar Ahmad on Saturday said the federal government was responsible for the rising medicine prices.

He questioned the federal government’s authority to introduce 1976’s Drug Act that, according to him, had centralised the authority of issuing medicine import licences, regulation, price fixing of raw material and finished products.

“The concurrent status of drug and medicine is the reason behind the rising prices of generic medicines (same ingredients) under different brand names.”

He said that besides the brand-oriented sale of generic medicines and unrealistic price fixing, unethical practices of doctors to prescribe costly branded medicines instead of similar low-cost generic medicines was the major cause of the price hike of drugs.

The minister said that doctors’ associations would be engaged for government assistance to check prescription of expensive branded medicines. He added that President General Pervez Musharraf in his recent visit to Karachi had taken notice of the matter and asked for its solution.

“Under the table dealings regarding import of raw material of medicines from China and India and then labelling them as European medicines to raise the overhead costs is another major reason behind the mounting medicine prices,” he said.—PPI