Last week, this column spoke about the CCP’s allegations against the Pharma Bureau over collusion and price-fixing (Read: “Pharma Bureau vs. CCP,” published Friday). As promised, today’s article takes the discussion on the pharma industry forward with some much-needed policy revisions.

Firstly, it should be clear that essential drugs should be affordable and freely available. This was also mentioned by Ayesha Haq, the Executive Director of the Pharma Bureau. In fact, not many would argue against this. For this very purpose, there exists an “essential drugs list” with the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP). The regulator should ensure that the price of life-saving medicines is affordable. However, the “essential drugs list” is rendered moot because there is a blanket restriction on price increases of every drug in Pakistan. Ms. Haq was of the view that some drugs should be controlled, but the free market should be allowed to determine the price of others.

Secondly, the new drug pricing policy that came into effect as of July 2016 does allow a price increase on certain products. However, the pharma industry sees it as largely ineffective; although it happens to be a step in the right direction, most pharma companies are of the view that the price increase allowed is only nominal, and does not cover the rising costs seen over the past decade (Read: “DRAP: Unhealthy negligence,” published May 25, 2016).

Thirdly, there is the issue of exports. As Pakistan manufactures the cheapest drugs in the world, shouldn’t do it well in exports? Pharma manufacturers can increase the price only slightly and still make a killing in the international market, so why don’t they? The problem is that they can’t; by and large, drug manufacturers in Pakistan are not FDA or EMA-approved, meaning the industry’s exports have never been able to really take off. Then, there’s also the issue of export orders being stuck with DRAP (Read: “The pharma blues,” published March 11, 2016). The Commerce Ministry’s revised STPF (2015-18) mentioned pharmaceuticals as an area of focus for exports but thus far we haven’t seen or heard much.

Finally, regarding the inefficiency of DRAP, the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) recently called for the deregulation of DRAP to make it an autonomous regulatory authority, free from the clutches of bureaucracy. Either that or the regulator should get its act together, revise some of the arcane policies, as well as work with the industry to enhance pharmaceutical exports.

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