ISLAMABAD, July 1: The doctors have suggested to the government not to implement the proposed pharmaceutical policy as, what they say, it will hit the poor consumers hard by pushing the prices of drugs further high.

An official source told Dawn that through separate letters to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, some senior doctors have suggested that the deregulation of drug prices would make the treatment of fatal diseases, like cancer, kidney, liver, heart, asthma, epilepsy, unaffordable for the people, specially the poor.

“It would further increase the prices of the medicines, as was experienced during the partial deregulation in 1993.”

Four senior specialists of cancer, radiologists and pharmacists of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, through separate letters have urged the President to take a firm stand against the pharmaceutical giants, which, according to them, pressurised the government every year to get an increase in the prices of their products.

However, the source said: “To counter the move, a high official of the industries ministry is leading a delegation to Lahore to convince the Shaukat Khanum Hospital doctors that the deregulation policy would bring down the prices through market competition.

In their letters, the doctors stated that it was their moral duty to think about the poor patients and make efforts to reduce their burden by providing cost effective medicines.