ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: Different druggist and consumer right organizations on Friday expressed fears that the proposed pharmaceutical policy, under which the price increase formula had been devised, would encourage profiteering, instead of reducing the prices of the medicines.
This was said in a joint statement issued by the representatives of Foundation for the Preferment of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FPPS), The Network for Consumer Protection, Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), Pakistan Chemist and Druggist Association (PCDA) and Shifa International Hospital, at a local hotel on Friday.
They blamed the industries ministry for pursuing the proposed pharmaceutical policy in a secretive and hasty manner.
They also appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the cabinet to disapprove the proposed policy, which allegedly lacked provision to check plunder, amounting to Rs4 to Rs5 billion per annum, through transfer pricing in raw materials.
The organizations also called for setting up the proposed Drug Registration Price Authority, on the similar pattern of FDA of the US and MCA of the UK.
They also described the proposed policy as a “ridiculous one-page document”, released by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the industries ministry. They added that the decision would adversely affect the public interest and prove to more disastrous than the imposition of 15 per cent general sales tax on medicines.
The delegation of authority upon the industries minister to regulate drug pricing would help the profiteers fleece more at the cost of poor patients, who were to be hit hard due to manifold increase in the drug prices.
The representatives said they had evidence of price increase, witnessed during the partial decontrol of 1993, in which prices of medicines were raised from 200 per cent to 750 per cent. They added that the decision to deregulate then was also taken on the initiative of Planning Commission and approved by the ECC.
“The policy is infact a conspiracy against the government of President Pervez Musharraf and it will create more and more hardships for the poor people who are already bearing 80 per cent healthcare expenses from their own meagre resources,” they said.
Already, the prices of medicines in Pakistan are much higher than those in India and Bangladesh, despite the fact that the president, through his March 29, 2002 directives, had called for reducing the prices.
The representatives said the policy had been cleared by the ECC, despite the fact that the World Bank and senior drug economist (pharmaceuticals) had openly said the efficacy, safety, affordability and equity were likely to deteriorate as a result of the focus on industrial goals.
The policy seeks to guard the interest of the industry without any consideration for health by favouring multi-national companies. The drugs should not be considered like other commodities, but the proposed policy intends to shift the focus towards industrial profitability.
The organizations alleged that the decision was a sugar- coated form of deregulation.
They quoted a study to establish that the prices of drugs used in most deadly diseases like cancer, hypertension, immunosuppressive conditions, emergencies (antidotes) and epilepsy were higher in Pakistan than in India — more than 780 per cent in most cases.
It is also being wrongly propagated that the number of controlled drugs in India was about 850, which was five to 10 per cent higher than the formulations controlled in Pakistan. They emphasized that 99 per cent anti-cancer drugs in India were cheaper, compared to those in Pakistan.
They recalled that several countries, including South Africa and India, had made medicines affordable by favouring production of cheaper generic medicines.
They claimed that it was also surprising that the consultations with the governors and provincial governments in this regard had totally been ignored. “This seems to have been done deliberately, as the governors and provincial governments have been most concerned and badly hit from increase in drug prices since 1993,” they added.
Instead of putting more stress on clinical trials and testing of new molecules, which was now being done in India, Thailand and Malaysia, the industries ministry and the ECC had been pleading for automatic registration of molecules — a decision that would make essential drugs out of reach for the people.
The health ministry has been running the affairs of drugs registration board and drugs appellate board with the representatives of the provincial governments and ministries of health, industries and law. It was not understood as to why the industries ministry was so keen and eager to take over the drug pricing, they questioned.
Chaudhry Sajjad Munir represented the FPPS; Azhar Hussain, The Network; Hanif Abbasi, PCDA; Khawaja Mohammad Asad, North PPMA; and Shafqat Hamdani, chief pharmacists of Shifa International Hospital.