• Federal cupboard but to resolve on proposals regardless of Drap recommending worth revisions for 105 hardship-category medicines over two years in the past
• Extended shortages creating alternatives for unlawful suppliers to fill the hole, chemists’ physique warns
KARACHI: The extended scarcity of greater than 100 important medicines, together with life-saving medication for most cancers, coronary heart illness and different critical diseases, has created house for counterfeit and substandard merchandise, because the federal authorities continues to delay, for greater than two years, a choice on revising costs that producers say not cowl manufacturing prices, market sources and officers mentioned on Friday.
On the coronary heart of the disaster, they mentioned, was the extended delay in deciding the costs of important medicines.
Greater than two years after the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) really useful worth revisions for 105 hardship-category medicines, the federal authorities has but to approve the proposals.
Drap’s drug pricing committee concluded that the rising prices of imported uncooked supplies, vitality, packaging, transportation, labor, financing and forex depreciation had made the manufacturing of many important medicines commercially unviable.
Nonetheless, with the suggestions nonetheless pending earlier than the federal cupboard, a number of producers have both scaled again or suspended manufacturing, worsening the scarcity of important medicines throughout the nation.
Abdul Samad Buddani of the Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Affiliation (PCDA) warned that extended shortages of real medicines have been creating alternatives for counterfeiters and unlawful suppliers to fill the hole.
“A complete of 105 medicines are both unavailable or in critically quick provide. They embody oral morphine capsules in each 10mg and 30mg strengths used for extreme most cancers ache, streptokinase injections for coronary heart assaults, chemotherapy medicines together with cisplatin, carboplatin and doxorubicin, pediatric digoxin liquid, pilocarpine eye drops, yellow fever vaccine, folic acid tablets and several other immunoglobulin merchandise,” he mentioned.
The rising scarcity has additionally raised issues in regards to the integrity of the pharmaceutical provide chain, with business representatives warning that the extended unavailability of real medicines is creating alternatives for counterfeit and substandard merchandise to fill the hole.
“When genuine medicines disappear from the market, sufferers turn into determined and infrequently flip to unreliable sources. That will increase the danger of counterfeit and substandard medicines coming into the provision chain, significantly costly most cancers medicines and different life-saving medication,” Mr Buddani mentioned.
‘Financially unsustainable’
Pharmaceutical manufacturers claim that the shortages are largely the result of prolonged delays in implementing the hardship pricing mechanism, arguing that the current pricing structure has made the production of several essential medicines financially unsustainable.
They urged the government to expedite pending decisions to restore supplies and prevent further disruptions.
A senior member of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA) said successive governments had delayed decisions on hardship-category medicines despite clear recommendations from the Drug Pricing Committee, discouraging manufacturers from continuing the production of several essential medicines.
“If manufacturers cannot recover even the basic cost of producing essential medicines, production simply cannot continue. The pricing policy exists to ensure these medicines remain available to patients, and timely decisions are necessary to achieve that objective,” he said.
Officials at Drap confirmed that the cases have remained pending since February 2024 despite recommendations by the Drug Pricing Committee, which concluded that manufacturing many essential medicines had become commercially unviable under existing prices.
“The regulatory authority has completed its mandate by processing the applications and forwarding its recommendations to the government. The final decision rests with the federal cabinet, which has to determine the matter in the broader public interest,” Drap Chief Executive Officer Dr Obaidullah Malik said in a brief reply to Dawn’s query.
Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2026
