Daily Times

LAHORE: Pharmaceutical companies are again all set to increase the prices of hundreds of medicines as drug pricing committee (DPC) of Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP) has a meeting scheduled on August 30th for considering cases and fixing new prices of medicines, putting an additional burden on those who may require the.

Official documents available with Daily Times state that this will be 20th meeting of the pricing committee. The price of more than 400 medicines manufactured by dozens of multinationals will be increased and it is likely that DRAP will allow pharmaceutical companies to increase the prices of drugs.

An official privy to this development said pharmaceutical companies have been increasing consistently the prices of dozens of medicines without any permission from the government and the hike of drug prices has hit the pockets of low-income families. Comparatively, the prices of many medicines in neighbouring countries are low.

He said DRAP recently approved 1.43 percent to 2.86 percent increase in the price of more than 80,000 medicines, as some of the pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices up to 100pc after this notification.

Sources said the prices of drugs used to treat common ailments like flu, fever, malaria, cancer, heart disease and diarrhoea, which affect millions of Pakistanis will not be exempted from the price increase and manufacturers of these medicines are expected to earn billions of rupees.

According to proposed prices for medicine Neurolith SR 400mg from Rs.292 would be increased to Rs.590.00/10×10’s, Indobid Capsules from Rs.281.68 to Rs.615.00/50×10, Pregesic 573mg tab from Rs.300 to Rs.675.00/100’s, Suxam 100mg Inj from Rs.1472.00/50’s to Rs.2000.00/50’s. Likewise fermax 100mg Inj from Rs.1000/5’s to Rs.1600.00/5’s, Brufen Cream from Rs.44.05/30gm to Rs.63.3, and Cofcol

Tablets from Rs.500.00/250’s to Rs.777.47. Noor Muhammad Mehar, a pharmacist who specialises in drug laws, has condemned the proposed price hike and said it had created serious problems for poor patients. DRAP has recently formulated drug pricing policy and this policy allows pharmaceutical companies to increase drug prices in July every year.