LAHORE: Young doctors and pharmacists have urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of drugs price increase the multinational companies made in connivance with the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP).

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Young Doctors Association Pakistan President Dr Rana Sohail, general secretary Dr Salman Kazmi, Young Pharmacists Association Pakistan Vice-President Dr Hina Shaukat and Patients Rights Forum President Dr Noor Mahar alleged that many life-saving drugs had gone out of the reach of the poor patients since the federal government ignored this ‘critical issue’.

Dr Kazmi claimed that there was no computerised system in DRAP, no data record of any registered or de-registered medicine and even there’s no record of prices of medicines available in the market.

He said the “task forces and drug inspectors don’t have any website through which they may get any information regarding price of medicines either they are herbal, or allopathic drugs. As a result, the patients are paying the heavy cost for the DRAP blunders and failure to introduce the price mechanism.”

Dr Noor said that since 1976 the government had been collecting 1pc share from the pharmaceutical companies in the name of research and development but this fund had never been used for this purpose.

“We cannot understand why DRAP is not working for the Pakistani patients; it is only trying to protect strong profit-making firms,” he alleged.

Dr Noor said thousands of new medicines were not approved by DRAP during the last five years which was a matter of grave concern.

The office bearers of the YDAP and YPA have warned that if the new prices of the medicines are not withdrawn, they will launch a vigorous move against the federal government in coming weeks.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2016