PESHAWAR: The health department in collaboration with a multinational pharmaceutical company is launching a programme for provision of free treatment for four non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the designated hospitals of the province.

According to officials, a summary has been sent to the chief minister for approval after which a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed with Novartis, a multinational drug manufacturing firm, and the programme will be included in the next year ADP.

The company will provide 15 most commonly used essential medicines to the patients in the province. The government will spend Rs300 million per year on the programme that will benefit about two million patients.

The programme, which was presented to the chief minister last year, has been approved in principle through which the patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory illnesses and breast cancer will be given free medicines.

Govt to spend Rs300 million annually on the programme

The government will pay US $1 per month for treatment of one patient while the rest of the amount will be provided by the company.

The measure is aimed at addressing top seven causes of death with the help of quality drugs listed on the WHO’s essential medicines commonly prescribed by medics. The treatment of some of the diseases is costing more than $50 a month.

The manufacturer has also signed a similar MoU with Punjab government.

Officials said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak directed the health department to sort out modalities with the partner company prior to signing an agreement to enable the people to get free treatment for the most common ailments.

“Pakistan, being a low-middle income country, is amongst the 107 states in Access to Medicine index with 50 per cent of NCD-related deaths,” they said, citing WHO’s statistics.

The government wants to ensure timely and effective disease awareness and treatment of NCDs to reduce health burden and increase productivity of its workforce. The government wants to initiate the project through a few designated public sector hospitals and extend it to more hospitals in near future.

The patients would be registered under the Novartis Access programme, which is in progress in many low-income countries.

Official said that a World Bank report recently warned that Pakistan was facing a health crisis, with rising rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other NCDs, which were disproportionately affecting poor families and worsening the burden of poverty.

“Chronic diseases account for 59 per cent of the total disease burden in Pakistan,” they said. They added that breast cancer was the most common in Pakistan as it killed nearly 40,000 women per year.

Officials said that health department had held an in-house meeting with the medical practitioners, who all had endorsed the programme. They said that the patients would get free medication on prescriptions by qualified professors. They added that the department might also consider teaching and divisional headquarters hospitals for dispensation of medicines.

“Novartis has already been providing free medication to blood cancer patients in the province. Initially, the programme will be launched for one year,” said officials.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018