ISLAMABAD, May 14: Foundation for the Preferment of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FPPS) has asked the government to constitute a regulatory authority to check the ‘unjustified’ increase in medicine prices.

The absence of a regulatory authority was encouraging the multinational pharmaceutical companies to increase the prices of their products without any check, said the FPPS president Sajid Munir and general secretary Mohammad Usman at a press conference at a local hotel on Tuesday.

They urged President Pervez Musharraf, finance minister Shaukat Aziz, health minister Dr Abdul Malik Kasi and commerce minister Razzaq Dawood to bring to the table all the stakeholders including patients and consumer rights organizations before, deciding about the proposed deregulation policy.

They distributed a list of 156 commonly prescribed drugs, the prices of which have registered 200 to 700 per cent increase from 1993 to 2002.

After the approval of General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) in 1992-93, the government had allowed partial deregulation in the medicine prices.

The government had claimed that it would not affect the prices rather lead to a downward trend due to the increase in the number of manufacturers/importers and free market competition.

Contrary to the claim the prices have risen manifold. They said the price of Panadol tab registered 440 per cent increase from 1993 to 2002, Panadol Extra tab increased to 360.9 per cent, Calpol 60ml suspension 306.25 per cent, Cac 1,000 tab/10, 256 per cent, Calcium Sandoz Injections 221.26 per cent, Surbex-T 20s 232.66 per cent, Intaglobin 500mg 465.26 per cent, Globuman 2ml, a medicine used in Hepatitis B, C and Cancer 731 per cent, Dettol 250ml 260 per cent, Iodex 281.17 per cent, Avil 50mg tab 200 per cent, Benadryl Cough Syrup 450ml 284 per cent, Fefol Vit 30’s 391 per cent, Incidal 100ml 270 per cent, Lederplex Syrup 120ml 294 per cent, Mucaine tab 208 per cent, Polyfax Skin ointment 20g 329.8 per cent, ViDaylin Drops 10ml 294.57 per cent, Ventolin syrup 60ml 211.31 per cent and Wintogeno ointment 256.52 per cent.

They said this list contained decontrolled medicines. The total number of registered medicines were 28,000 out of which 821 were under the above category.

In 2000, the pharmaceutical firms managed to increase the prices of medicine by eight per cent to 10 per cent but in 2001 they could increase the prices by 3 per cent to 4 per cent only, they said.

This year they have changed their policy and are trying to convince the ministry of industries to deregulate the prices. A committee has been set up to study the proposal of deregulation, they claimed.

There is a general principle to the increase in drug prices all over the world suggesting that if the per capita income in a country increases by 10 per cent, the drug prices increase by 8 per cent.

In Pakistan the per capita income was decreasing gradually from $485 in 1997 to $420 in 2001. But the prices of drugs were increasing continuously, they said,

They were of the view that deregulation especially after imposing 15 per cent general sales tax (GST) would damage the image of the government since this action would further push the prices of medicine beyond the reach of the general public.