Hike in medicine prices: Govt agrees on meeting pharma industry

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has agreed to discuss the increase in price of medicines with the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) following the industry’s threat to close down factories in a week, ARY News reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

According to sources, the Ministry of Health has received the letter – written by Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), demanding an increase in prices of medicines.

Sources told ARY News that a delegation of government – headed by Heath Minister Abdul Qadir Patel – would meet PPMA delegation in ‘coming days’. Dr Asim Rauf, CEO Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) would also attend the meeting.

Sources further claimed that the meeting would discuss the issues being faced by the pharma industry. The meeting would also consider opening of letters of credit (LCs) to stop shortage of medicines.

A day earlier, the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) penned down a letter to the Ministers of Finance and Health and CEO Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), demanding an increase in the prices of medicines.

In the letter, the pharma industry gave an ultimatum to the government that it would close factories across the country if the government did not increase the prices ‘in a week’.

Earlier in January, the pharma industry warned that the medicine shortage crisis will likely worsen as pharmaceutical firms run out of raw materials.

Chairman PPMA Syed Farooq Bukhari alerted the government that the pharmaceutical companies were running out of raw materials for the production of medicines.

He added if Letters of Credit (LCs) were not opened by the central bank within 15 days, the country would witness an acute shortage of medicines.