THIS is with reference to a news item (June 3) and your subsequent editorial on the subject (June 5) wherein it was claimed that drug prices have increased by 600 per cent, though no example of this increase was presented in the write-up.

At the outset, we deny that any such increase has taken place. As a responsible association representing the pharmaceutical industry, we found it disturbing and would like to clarify some misconceptions generated as a result.

The industry follows strict compliance of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) as defined by the WHO and other international regulators.

One of the most regulated components is the pricing. There has not been any ‘across the board’ price increase since the last three to four per cent given in December 2001.

We need not elaborate how much cost increase has taken place in the last 11 years, but the overall inflation has exceeded 110 per cent.

The increase often talked in the media is the one that was allowed as hardship cases, meaning the product was on the brink of being discontinued, and to prevent that the government provided some lifeline to those products, the increase of which in the overall context was not significant enough. How long can the pharmaceutical industry carry on like this is anybody’s guess!

What in fact happened in the 1990s can be explained by first going into the background of drug categorisation. All pharmaceutical products were divided into two major categories: controlled drugs and decontrolled drugs.

Controlled drugs are mainly those which are included in WHO’s Essential List and are basically life-saving drugs. The decontrolled drugs, as the name suggests, are general in nature and have no monopoly, and where patients have various choices/options available to them. However, the industry was not allowed to increase prices irrespective of being in the decontrolled category.

This was gross injustice to the pharmaceutical industry, which was singled out for price freeze, whereas all other industries had the freedom to increase prices on the drop of a hat.

If we apply the inflation factor, all drug prices should have been more than doubled. However, mentioning gross and exaggerated price increase is baseless and creates a bad name for the industry and frustration at the patient’s level.

There are several FDA plants in India, and there are at least three such plants even in Bangladesh. In Pakistan, there is none primarily due to the faulty pricing policy. The pharmaceutical manufacturers do not get enough return: hence, they find it difficult funding even Balancing Modernisation and Reconstruction (BMR) activities leave aside investment in new technology and bringing the plants to FDA/EU requirements.

We would like to emphasise that the prices of medicines are economical in our country as compared to not only the developed/western countries but also the regional/developing countries.

The pharmaceutical industry is the second line of defence for the country, and we need the industry to be commercially viable to survive.

RIAZ HUSSAIN Secretary General Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association, Islamabad