About a month after the federal cabinet announced to allow pharmaceutical companies to increase prices of 94 lifesaving medicines to end their chronic shortage in the market, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Wednesday issued a notification in this regard.
Reportedly, the medicines that would witness price hikes included furosemide injections for emergency use in high blood pressure cases; acetazolamide tablets for glaucoma; hydralazine tablets to lower blood pressure and carbamazepine tablets for epilepsy.
According to an earlier statement issued by the Ministry of Health, the designated maximum retail prices would remain in place until June 30, 2021.
The government had in September announced that prices were increased only on drugs that were in the “hardship category,” as recommended by the Drug Pricing Committee under the Drugs Pricing Policy, 2018.
The “hardship category” is a clause that allows increasing medicine prices for a company that stops the manufacturing of medicines by claiming its production has become non-viable due to the high cost of production.
