ISLAMABAD: August 5, 2022. The pharmaceutical industry on Friday conveyed to the government that it needs to be granted minimum 40 percent increase in the maximum retail price (MRP) to avoid looming shortage of critical lifesaving drugs in Pakistan.
Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), former president Ansar Farooq Chaudhary, told NEWSMAN on Friday that dozens of critical drugs have already gone short in the market and the situation may worsen if the government delays in approval of upward revision in MRP of critical life-saving drugs.
Mr Ansar Farooq Chaudhary claimed that pharmaceutical industry is not meeting cost of production due to rising cost of inputs used in manufacturing of lifesaving drugs andit took the issue with a committee formed by prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif, to revise MRP of medicines.
According to Ansar Farooq Chaudhary MRP of critical life- saving drugs have been worked out at the rupee value of 150 to a US dollar and now this value has gone up substantially reducing profit/ margin of the pharmaceutical industry. He noted that the current import policy was the second major hurdle in supply of raw materials used by the pharmaceutical industry, causing shortage of a number of life-=saving drugs. He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have different interpretation of the import policy 2022 and it was creating a serious problem for import of raw materials used in drug manufacturing.
Pakistan depends on imported raw materials for manufacturing of life-saving drugs. Quick rise in US dollar value in the recent months have put Pakistani industries including pharma industry in trouble as input cost of their products have gone up irrationally, but their retail prices are either stagnant or rising less as compared to the rise in input cost.
Pakistan being a low income country has turned into a high cost market for the buyers who are braving impact of unprecedented price hike , Particularly , the cost of living of the people in Pakistan has gone up as inflation has gone up to 21 % ,but their income has shrunk . In the given situation, a vast majority of the low income group of Pakistan is reeling under mounting inflation pressure. The government has no solution to this grave situation as it has no funds to provide any relief to inflation- hit segment of he society that makes over 60 % of total population of Pakistan.