ISLAMABAD, April 19: While Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is busy claiming innocence of his younger son Ali Musa Gilani in the ephedrine scandal, few people in the government have noticed that the matter has led to a crisis of a different nature. The pharmaceutical industry has been hit hard because of non-availability of controlled substances in the country.

As a result, many life-saving drugs of which these imported substances are essential ingredients are missing from drug stores or being sold at much higher prices.

Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association chairman Khawaja Mohammad Asad confirmed the crisis and said the authorities should take notice of it. “It takes about five months for a company to import a controlled substance for manufacturing a certain drug. The pharmaceutical industry is allocated inadequate quotas of controlled substances for which we have to regularly place orders. But after the ongoing scandal the entire process of their import is virtually stalled,” he said. If the current situation persists for another few weeks, Mr Asad warned, there would be a serious shortage of drugs like Lexotanil, Diazepam and Xanax in coming days. These drugs are already out of market, causing serious problems for patients of high blood pressure, anxiety and sleep-disorder.

According to the PPMA record, about 400 companies in the country use controlled chemicals for manufacturing drugs. Mr Asad said that because of the fast depleting stocks of raw material, the companies had no option but to stop their production. “Pakistan has some 700 pharmaceutical companies with an annual turnover of over $900 million. We can only import controlled substances after securing a mandatory no-objection certificate (NOC) from the government which is a time-consuming job considering the chronic bureaucratic procedures,” he said.

“Due to the ongoing ephedrine saga, things have become difficult for us,” said a senior official at a multi-national pharmaceutical company. He appealed to the Supreme Court hearing the ephedrine import case to dispose it of on an emergency basis and direct the government to expedite the import of the controlled substance.

The government is currently drafting rules and regulations for the newly-established Drug Regulator Agency of Pakistan (DRAP) which deals with issues concerning the drug industry. The DRAP is being placed under the newly-created Ministry of Regulations and Services which has been given to Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.

“We are trying to frame rules for the DRAP but it will take some time,” a senior government official said, adding that since the emergence of the ephedrine scandal, no request had been processed for the import of controlled substances.

He said that every second official of the DRAP, which was earlier under the health ministry’s drugs control wing, was at present under investigation by the Anti-Narcotics Force. “People are so scared of the implication of this high-profile case that they are not working these days,” the official said.