ISLAMABAD: Even after about a month, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has not forward a summary to fix the price of a hepatitis drug to the Prime Minister (PM) Office.

Because of non-fixation of the price, smuggled Indian drugs are being sold at almost three times the higher rates than recommended by Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap).

A citizen alleged that the fixation of the hepatitis drug was deliberately being delayed as smuggled medicines worth Rs1.5 billion were available in the market and would not be sold if a cheaper drug becomes available.

However, NHS Secretary Ayub Sheikh told Dawn that a scrutiny committee was verifying different issues and would forward the summary to the PM Office within a week.

After a long controversy, Drap on April 10 had recommended the price of daclatasvir but a notification could not be issued as the summary is still stuck in the NHS ministry.

Daclatasvir is used in combination with sofosbuvir and ribavirin to treat hepatitis C.

Sofosbuvir was introduced in the US in December 2013 and approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

It has a much better cure rates and minimal side effects compared to the interferon injection. Sofosbuvir is given to hepatitis C patients for six months. However, if one tablet of daclatasvir is added to sofosbuvir not only its result improves but also the length of the course reduces from six to three months.

Though a number of companies had applied for the manufacturing of the drug, Drap did not recommend the price due to which the import of the Indian medicine continued with special permission and was available at Rs11,500 to Rs13,000 (28 tablets). Moreover, a large quantity of the medicine is also smuggled from India.

On April 10, the Drug Pricing Committee (DPC) of Drap recommended that the price of 30mg daclatasvir will be Rs2,700 and that of 60mg around Rs4,600.

Mian Aftab Ahmed, who had filed a petition in Lahore High Court seeking directions to Drap to fix the prices of new molecules (medicines)and got a verdict in his favour, alleged that the ministry was deliberately not forwarding the summery for the fixation of the price because smuggled medicine worth Rs1.5 billion was still available in the market.

“Some elements want to ensure that the smuggled medicine is sold out before the arrival of the local medicine because otherwise no one will buy it at a three-time higher rate. An amount of almost Rs1 billion is involved in it,” he alleged.

He suggested that the ministry should forward the summery to the PM Office without any further delay because not only poor patients were paying more but foreign exchange was also wasted because of the smuggling.

“It is an injustice with the patients to force them to buy a drug at such a high rate when it can be made available for Rs4,600,” he said.

An official of the ministry, requesting not to be identified, said the DPC had recommended prices of 35 to 40 companies and the scrutiny committee needed to clarify many things.

“There are so many issues such as policy provisions, if price is very high etc. All clarifications are asked from the pricing division of Drap and after satisfaction the summery will be forwarded to the PM Office. There will be transparency in all the process,” the official said.

According to estimates, almost 10pc of the population in the country are suffering with hepatitis and around 150,000 of them die of complications every year.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017