RAWALPINDI, March 13: Several life-saving drugs are in short supply at drug stores and wholesale market of the twin cities, a survey conducted by Dawn revealed on Wednesday.

The drugs short in the market are Ventolin Inhaler (Glaxo), Lexotanil tab, Valium tab (Roche), Devenol Syrup (Wyeth), Calan SR tab and Calan tab (Searle), Dogoxin tab (Glaxo), Thyroxin tab (Glaxo), Linoxin tab (Glaxo), Telfast tab (Aventis), Spiromide tab (Searle), Aldactone tab (Searle), Angised tab (Glaxo), Isodril tab (Wyeth), Sistalgin tab (Merk), Primolat-N tab, Marzine Syrup and tab (Glaxo), Frisium tab (Aventis), Nilstat Vaginal tab (Lederle), Kemadrin tab (Wyeth), Migril tab (Wyeth), Jectofer plain injection and Jectofer plus injection (Astra), Noctomide tab, Loprin tab (Highnoon), Sustac tab (Searle), Gravinate tab (Searle), Redalin tab (Novartis), Klaracid injection (Abbott), Neodipar tab (Hoescht), Phenobarbitone (Ferozesons), Penicillin cap (Glaxo) and Serenace (Searle).

“These are some of the drugs that are commonly used and the actual list of the drugs that are in short supply is much longer,” a chemist said.

Drug retailers and wholesalers disclosed that this shortage is created by the manufacturers as part of their price politics. Most of these drugs are cheap and therefore not very profitable for the firms, as such they cut down on the production, creating artificial shortage of these brands in the market.

Many of them are life-saving drugs, while a large number of these medicines are regularly used by patients suffering from asthma, ischemic heart diseases, hypertension etc.

Sources in the pharmaceutical business said the other reason for the shortage was smuggling of these drugs to foreign countries because of its low price.

They said some of the medicines short in the market are very cheap in Pakistan as compared to other countries for example Thyroxine costs 7 paisa in Pakistan, whereas its price in India is 50 paisa resulting in manifold increase in their profit margin.

They demanded of the government to ensure realistic pricing and a concerted effort by its agencies to stop smuggling and for improving the availability of the medicines in the interest of the patients.

It is also learnt that the city hospitals are in short supply of antidotes for poisoning. These include injection Naloxene, activated Charcoal, Deseral, injection Pencilling and Flumazenil.

Doctors said the shortage of some of these medicines is only brand shortage, and other brands of the same generic are available in the market. However, the patients having used the drug for a period of time become brand loyal and are not ready to shift to other brands.

In some cases the alternates are very expensive for example Migril costs Rs1.90 per tablet while the alternative Zomig costs around Rs260 per tablet.