ISLAMABAD: The prime minister has expressed his dissatisfaction over the increase in the price of medicine and has sought a detailed report from the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS).

Ministry officials were debating on the kind of report to send to the Prime Minister’s Office as the prices were increased according to a policy sanctioned by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet last year.

The Pharma Bureau’s executive director, Ayesha Tammy Haq, says the prime minister might just want to know about the criteria used for increasing the prices of medicines.

“If the notification is withdrawn, the pharmaceutical industry will be closed and the government’s policies and announcements will no longer be credible,” she said.

The NHS ministry recently issued a notification for increasing the prices of 10,000 medicines available on the market. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was referred to when increasing the prices.

The CPI was announced at 2.86pc and it was decided that 50pc of CPI will be increased for scheduled drugs, i.e. life saving drugs that are more than 300 molecules. Non-scheduled drugs will be increased by 70pc and that of threshold drugs, which are priced at less than Rs3 per tablet, will be increased by 100pc of the CPI.

A senior official at the NHS ministry said that on Wednesday, officials were debating over what kind of report to send to the PM Office.

“A policy was made in 2015 by the government and approved by ECC that inflationary relief will be given to the pharmaceutical industry and that CPI will be referred to for this. The NHS ministry just executed the policy,” he said.

He said the ministry was involved in price increases in the past due to which it was criticised as well. However, according to the new policy, the ministers had no role in the process and prices will increase automatically each year, according to inflation. He said this policy was made after detailed discussions.

“However, if the notification is withdrawn, we will be faced with problems because companies will go to court and say the government has not implemented its own policy which it announced a year ago and the companies will be given relief by the courts. We will also face embarrassment in court when defending existing cases,” he said.

He said that it was decided that the report to be sent to the PM Office will say that prices were increased according to government policy.

Pharma Bureau’s Ayesha Tammy Haq said she was shocked to hear the prime minister had expressed dissatisfaction over the price increase.

“I think he might have asked for a report just to brief him after watching the reports on the media. The prices were increased according to government policy,” she said.

“The price increase is inflationary relief, just like the prices of all utility services, goods and salaries are increased each year. These lead to increased medicine production costs as well. If the notification is removed, we will not trust government announcements anymore,” she said.

NHS Minister Saira Afzal Tarar said the ministry will be sending in a detailed report to the PM Office, saying the prices were increased according to the government’s policy of last year.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2016