Full marks to the prime minister for finally putting his foot down and taking away the power to set prices of medicines from pharmaceutical companies. According to news reports, the PM prevailed despite a fair bit of opposition from within the cabinet, which will no doubt feel like a breath of fresh air to people struggling to afford medicines that are getting expensive all the time. It turns out that Special Advisor on Commerce Razzaq Dawood and Special Advisor on Health Dr Zafar Mirza did not want the government to fiddle with the system at all, because taking away pharma companies’ power to set prices would somehow leave them at the mercy of the bureaucracy. And while it is appreciated that the PM’s closest advisors were so concerned about companies that make abnormal profits all year long, it is nothing short of incredible that at the same time they did not think at all about ordinary people left to the whims of market forces in a situation where suppliers set the price. If any proof is still needed about the merciless profit making that the pharma sector is addicted to one needs to only look back at what has happened since the coronavirus and shutdown sparked demand for some medicines. Even some senior government representatives were forced to admit that the behaviour of pharma companies in such circumstances is nothing short of cannibalistic. Some medicines and injections that were previously available for a few thousand rupees were being sold for many hundred thousand, just because of the increased demand even though there wasn’t any out-of-the-ordinary pressure on supply. It is learnt that Prime Minister Imran Khan had been upset about these trends for the past few months and suddenly decided to do something about it, which must be appreciated. But since this episode shows that the head of state can set such things right rather quickly perhaps next time such welcome news will not take so long in coming. It is ordinarily believed that the cabinet works, especially in democracies, for the general welfare of the people. Why, then, were senior members of that very body going out of their way to influence the prime minister against providing desperately needed relief for the people? Maybe it is because a lot of people in the federal cabinet, especially said advisors, were not elected and are used to finding themselves taking important decisions for one government after another for reasons well known to everybody. Someone should, at the very least, look into some of these things. *