ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: Multinational and local pharmaceutical companies have agreed to replace the stocks of drugs destroyed during the July 23 flash-floods in Rawalpindi.

An official source told Dawn that a majority of manufacturers had agreed to replace the stocks that were either washed away or lost efficacy due to contamination. In fact, many of them had already replaced the stocks, he added.

Anjuman-i-Tajeran-i-Adviyat, an association of wholesalers, claimed that 50 to 60 per cent of the stocks had been washed away in the flood while the remaining stocks remained in highly polluted water for about eight hours.

Ishrat Ali Chowhan, the newly elected secretary-general of the association, told Dawn that the July flash floods had ruined 300 medical stores that remained under 10 to 12 feet of water during the floods.

Earlier, while the national companies had expressed willingness to replace the destroyed stocks, the multinationals were reluctant to do so. However, when the matter was taken up at the highest level at the ministry of health, the multinationals agreed to replace the medicines, Mr Chowhan said.

At a recent meeting, the wholesalers’ association also demanded of the government to allow them an increase in their profit margin from the current five per cent because, they added, retailers were enjoying profits of up to 10 to 12 per cent.

They also asked the government to provide interest-free loans of up to Rs300,000 to each flood-affected shopkeeper.

In his letter to the chairman of Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Mr Chowhan said he had requested that wholesalers of medicines should be exempted from payment of taxes for the financial year 2001-02. However, Mr Chowhan regretted that the government had not yet responded positively to the request.