PESHAWAR, Nov 28: The deregulation of pharmaceutical sector, as proposed by policy makers through shifting of the price control authority to the ministries for industries and finance from the health ministry, will increase sufferings of the poor consumers and affect their struggle for having access to medicines.

This was observed by the Network, an NGO working to promote rational use of drugs and essential drugs concept in the latest issue of its monthly Drug Bulletin.

“Breaking the national pharmaceutical policy into pieces which is controlled by different ministries is going to add to the existing chaos and would lead to confusion and inconsistency,” remarked the Network.

The Drug Bulletin said: “Like the earlier policy of imposing General Sales Tax (GST), this policy is also ill-conceived and ideologically driven rather than evidence based. There is every likelihood that it will also result in the same kind of public outcry and eventually it may also have the same fate.”

It said: “A cursory reading of the policy belies its claim that deregulation and industrial growth are panacea for all the ills in pharmaceutical sector, because the suggested policy falls way short of public health goals to be addressed.”

The policy ultimately hits the vulnerable sections of the population, because policies of deregulation, privatization and liberalization did not acknowledged the needs of those sections of population who had not been mainstreamed and had less power and control, it added.

“Free market economy, in the developing countries like ultimately leads to phenomenal increase in prices and with reference to the proposed deregulation policy of pharmaceutical sector, same is feared here,” it said.

The Network observed that the proposed pharmaceutical policy document was fundamentally flawed as it did not talk about the ways through which deregulation would enhance the access of the poor consumers to the needed medicines which was a serious public policy issue.

The organisation said that division of interdependent areas between the ministries for industry and health was not recommended.

It recommended the developing of feasibility for an independent drug regulatory authority on the lines of Food & Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA.—APP