DRAP gets until July 6 to explain mask, life-saving drug price hike

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday gave Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) more time to furnish reply on a petition against sale of face marks, temperature guns, and life-saving drugs at inflated rates.

Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi of the high court directed the drug regulator authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to file response by July 6.

Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Advocate Azhar Siddique moved the petition, contending that coronavirus ccases are on the rise in the country but prices of hand sanitizers, masks, and life-saving drugs have gone up exponentially.

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He told the court that one packet of Chloroquine tablets, used to treat COVID-19 patients, has hit Rs3,000 while injection Actemra is being sold at up to Rs1 million. Masks, temperature guns and plasma of recovered patients, which is donated free-of-cost for transfusion, are too being sold at exorbitant rates, he added.

1,468 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were confirmed in Punjab in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the province to 77,740.

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According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 17 more people died due to complications related to the virus, taking the death toll in the province to 1,784. Thus far, 28,266 patients have been cured of the disease in the province.

1,468 new cases emerged when 7,996 tests were conducted in the province over the past 24 hours.