AAMIR SAEED

ISLAMABAD: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) on Tuesday increased prices of medicines through a notification, saying the increase is linked with Consumer Price Index (CPI).

“In pursuance of the Drug Pricing Policy-2015 and for transparency, fair practices and uniform application, annual increase in prices of drugs has been linked with CPI which is announced by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics,” the notification said.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has announced CPI for financial year 2015-16 as 2.86 percent.

The notification says that as per CPI rate of 2.86 percent under formula in the Drug Pricing Policy-2015 as approved by the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC), price increase on the existing approved MRPs of drugs has been notified in three different categories.

In the first category, price of scheduled drugs has been increased by

1.43 percent (50 percent of CPI), in the second category prices of non-scheduled drugs were increased by 2.002 percent (70 percent of CPI) and in the third category, lower priced drugs have been increased by 2.86 percent (equal to CPI).

About proposed date of application of prices by the company, the Drap said that it would be minimum 15 days, after the date of submission of revised pricing data to it.

An official of the Drap told Business Recorder that some 70,000 different medicines were registered with the authority, but a number of them have been withdrawn and some companies have stopped production.

He said there were over 10,000 medicines available in the market and the price hike will be effective for all of them.

“These rates of price increase are not applicable on drugs, whether scheduled, non-scheduled, or lower priced drugs, whose cases are pending adjudication before the courts of law,” the notification says.

The Drap has also urged people to lodge a complaint with it if any pharmaceutical company or retailer increases price of any drug at more than notified rate.

In 2001, prices of the medicines were frozen, but only few of them were granted an increase under hardship cases after some companies complained that it was not viable for them to continue manufacturing of the medicines at the fixed prices.

The Drap, however, increased medicine prices by 15 percent in November 2013, and then withdrew the notification the next day on the orders of the Prime Minister. Some companies later obtained stay orders against the move, and continued selling medicines at higher prices.