PESHAWAR, June 14: The federal government is scheduled to announce the deregulation of medicine prices on June 24, drug makers told Dawn on Friday.

“The committee, which was formed by the federal government to review the prices of medicines, will present its  report to the president on June 22,”   said a local manufacturer.

He said the body headed by Commerce Minister Abdur Razaaq Daud with the finance and health ministers as its members would recommend the deregulation of the drug prices in the country.

The president, following the report’s presentation, would announce the deregulation of drug prices on June 24.

Once deregulated, the multinationals pharmaceutical companies (MNCs) would get a free hand to enhance the prices of their products whenever they wanted and fleece the patients according to their will, the drug maker commented.

At present, about 673 medicines out of 831 in Pakistan were listed as decontrolled ones, said another local drug manufacturer.

The prices were already high, and the deregulation would add miseries to the people’s problem, as they could not purchase medicines after the further price hike, he remarked.

The 831 drugs are generic ones while the total number of registered medicines in the country remains 38,000.

In the meanwhile, Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (Peshawar chapter) Senior Vice-President Abdul Hadi Khan has termed the statement issued by the commerce minister baseless and motivated wherein he had said the prices of drugs in India and Sri Lanka were 75 per cent higher than in Pakistan.

Mr Khan claimed to have facts and figures that the drug prices in the neighbouring countries were 500-1,000 per cent cheaper than in Pakistan.