ISLAMABAD: Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on Wednesday announced that it was reducing the price of medicine used for the treatment of Hepatitis C by 40 per cent.

Each jar of medicine named Sovaldi, which is used over a period of one month, will be available for Rs32,300 instead of Rs55,000.

It is pertinent to mention that Sovaldi, which is used for the treatment of Hepatitis C, was introduced in the United States in December 2013.

The medicine has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and it has better cure rates compared to Interferon injections. The treatment would span a period of six months.

According to the official statement issued on Wednesday, the medicine was registered last month and has been approved to be imported.

The decision will benefit patients across Pakistan and it is being ensured that sufficient quantity of the drug is made available to them within six weeks, says a press release.

“This is a major relief for Hepatitis C patients. The same medicine is available at a much higher rate in other countries. In Egypt, it costs Rs200,000 per bottle, while in the US itself, it is being sold for $26,600 per bottle (Rs2.6 million),” it added.

In the last few months, over 3,000 patients have started taking Sovaldi for treatment. The reduction in price will allow even more patients to benefit from the drug.

National Health Services Minister Saira Afzal Tarar has ordered strict vigilance to ensure that no illegal manufacturing of the drug is carried out in the country, the press release said.

It is pertinent to mention here that a raid was carried out by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a factory of a local company.

During the raid it was revealed that the company, Everest, was manufacturing the medicine under the name Sofosbuvir which is the generic name of the medicine Sovaldi. Following the raid, the company owner announced that he would go to court.

He said he had submitted an application with DRAP, claiming that his company would be providing one month medicine at a cost of Rs11,144.

However DRAP did not respond to his application. Following court’s intervention, DRAP allowed him to manufacture the medicine for tablet assessment, clinical data and clinical justification.

An official of NHS ministry, requesting not to be identified, said after the raid and sealing of the factory on February 27, DRAP authorities realised that they had made a blunder because they had given permission to the company to produce the medicine for clinical use and it could not prove the company wrong in the court because documents in this regard had also been submitted with the court.

“However because of the blunder it was decided to decrease the price of the medicine by around 40 per cent because Everest company had offered very low price for the medicine,” he said.

However NHS Minister Saira Afzal Tarar, while talking to Dawn, said the American company offered Rs55,000 price per jar to Pakistanis because it was a developing country.

“I instructed the local importer to contact the American company and request them to further decrease the price of the medicine. The company has agreed and initially it was decided that it will be sold for Rs35,000 through medical stores,” she said.

“Then we decided that the company should directly sell the medicine to patients and reduce the commission of the wholesaler and medical store.

So now the medicine will be sold for Rs32,300. There are 10 million patients of Hepatitis C in Pakistan who can benefit from the drug,” she said.

When the minister was asked why DRAP and FIA had raided the factory of Everest when the company had been given permission to manufacture the medicine, Ms Tarar said she was holding an inquiry to find out how permission had been given to produce the drug locally.

“We cannot allow local companies to produce such medicines because there are chances that substandard drugs will be manufactured which would effect the immune system of the patients and then even imported drugs will not be effective,” she said.

Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015

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