Karachi:
Pakistan’s drug regulatory agency’s controversial pricing policies and depreciating local currency have led to an acute shortage of imported and life-saving medicines in the debt-ridden country, media reports said on Monday.
Pakistan, currently in the throes of a major economic crisis, is struggling with a high external debt and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
The catastrophic floods in June last year inundated a third of the country, displaced more than 33 million people and caused $12.5 billion in economic damage to Pakistan’s floundering economy.
“Due to the extreme depreciation of the Pakistani currency against the dollar and the controversial drug pricing policy of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), their prices have skyrocketed and it has become economically impossible for importers to list them on the market. existing prices set by the DRAP,” Abdul Mannan, a pharmacist and importer of biologics, told The News.
Public and private healthcare facilities are facing an acute shortage of imported vaccines, cancer therapies, fertility drugs and anesthetic gases, according to media reports, after sellers halted deliveries due to the difference between the dollar and the rupee.
While most of the oral medicines including syrups, tablets and injections are produced locally, Pakistan imports most of the biological products such as vaccines, cancer drugs and therapies from India, China, Russia, European countries, as well as the United States and Turkey. Geo according to a TV report.
“The problem has become acute since DRAP imposed a three-year restriction to apply under the hardship category under Drug Pricing Policy 2018. This means that if a drug falls under the hardship category due to a higher import price, the importer will only be charged once can apply within three years for price adjustment,” Mannan said in the report.
The representative body of drug importers Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association has urged DRAP authorities to review the three-year hardship limit, in line with the 2018 revised pricing policy, saying that due to dollar differences they were unable to supply imported medicines. Geo TV report added.
Pakistan is currently struggling to boost its dwindling currency reserves, valued at $4.8 billion, after China refinanced $500 million last week.
Cash-stricken Pakistan is awaiting a much-needed $1.1 billion tranche of funding from the Washington-based global lender, originally scheduled to be disbursed last November.
The funds are part of a $6.5 billion bailout package approved by the IMF in 2019, which analysts say is critical if Pakistan is to avoid defaulting on its foreign debt obligations.
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