Life-saving drugs vanish as Pharma sector demands hike in prices

KARACHI: Stocks of life-saving and essential drugs have vanished from the medicine markets in the country as the pharmaceutical sector has demanded an increase in the prices following a hike in manufacturing costs owing to an increase in the rate of dollar, fuel prices, and other factors, ARY NEWS reported.

According to sources, multiple life-saving drugs, injections, and syrups are not available in the market while medicines for fever, body ache, asthma, cancer, cardiac arrest, blood pressure, TB, diabetes, and other diseases have also vanished from the market.

Chairman PPMA Mansoor Dilawar while speaking to ARY NEWS said inflation has hit high globally after the pandemic and led to a hike in prices of raw materials.

“The US dollar has also witnessed a hike by Rs65 during nine months besides hike in domestic fuel and freight charges,” he said and demanded the government to increase the prices of medicines by 40 percent.

He said that it has become unbearable for the pharma industry to manufacture medicines.

Mansoor Dilawar further lamented that the government promised to eliminate refunds of Rs40 billion sales tax and one percent invoice tax and blamed that their claims of billions of rupees of refunds have not materialized yet.

He said that the pharma industry could not hike prices of medicines on its own and therefore the government should allow an increase to ensure unabated supplies of medicines in the market.