News
Friday, February 17, 2012
Cabinet Division denies reports of raise in medicine pricesISLAMABAD: A spokesman of the Cabinet Division on Thursday denied news reports regarding 20 to 100 percent increase in the prices of 350 medicines.
The spokesman said the news item published in a section of press was incorrect and baseless, as no notification had been issued in this respect. It was clarified that under the direction of the Lahore High Court (LHC), a meeting of the Drug Pricing Committee (DPC), after authorisation from all the provinces, was held in the Cabinet Division on February 8. Representatives of the provincial health departments – in addition to representatives of Ministry of Finance and officials of Drug Control Administration, Cabinet Division – attended the meeting. Representatives of Pakistan Medical Association and Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan were also present in the meeting, the spokesman said.
He further said that no notification of price increase had been issued by the Cabinet Division. In fact, all the cases related to revision of prices would have to be placed before the DRA, which was being established after developing consensus among the provinces.
He said that after the 18th Amendment, taking advantage of regulatory gap, seven pharmaceutical companies had increased prices of some of their products by up to 127 percent without approval of the government, and after the action of the Drugs Control Administration, the companies knocked at the doors of the Lahore High Court and got stay orders. This situation was very alarming; therefore, on the order of the Lahore High Court, a meeting of the Drug Pricing Committee was held to consider the prices of the respective drugs within one month of the court orders. Accordingly, a meeting of the committee was held and after considering all the factors, the committee recommended to cut down the exorbitant increase of up to 127 percent in the prices of infusions to 30 to 40 percent in the best public interest. pr
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk