Thousands of cancer patients in Pakistan are facing difficulties accessing newly registered life-saving medicines as approvals for the prices of 40 drugs remain pending with the federal government. The delay has prevented these medicines from being legally sold in the country, forcing many patients and families to rely on expensive imports and informal supply channels.
Read More: Salman Khan quietly supported cancer patients for over 30 years
One such case involves a young woman suffering from triple-negative breast cancer who has been unable to obtain pembrolizumab, an advanced immunotherapy medicine prescribed after conventional treatments failed. Although the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has registered the medicine, it cannot enter the legal market until the government approves and notifies its maximum retail price.
Cancer specialists said the situation affects thousands of patients who require modern therapies for serious diseases. They warned that dependence on unregistered and smuggled medicines creates concerns about authenticity, storage conditions and treatment effectiveness.
Pembrolizumab is internationally approved for treating more than 20 types of cancers, including breast, lung, cervical, kidney and bladder cancers. Other important medicines awaiting approval include nivolumab, irinotecan and dasatinib, along with treatments for diabetes, autoimmune diseases, haemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, blood clot prevention, hypertension during pregnancy and critical care emergencies.
Federal Minister for National Health Services Syed Mustafa Kamal said the government was working to complete the approval process. He clarified that the pending approvals were not related to increasing existing medicine prices but involved setting prices for newly registered products so they could become available legally.
The minister said prices for 35 newly registered medicines had already been approved, while efforts were underway to secure approval for the remaining 40 medicines from the Cabinet Committee and federal cabinet.
According to DRAP, recommendations for the pending medicines were finalised by the Drug Pricing Committee between December 2024 and June 2025 and later sent to the government for final approval.
Healthcare experts and pharmaceutical representatives have urged authorities to speed up the process, saying delays are forcing vulnerable patients to search for essential medicines outside regulated channels.