Mansoor Sadiq

The shortage of life-saving drugs in the market is troubling the patients depending on such medicines, and panic-like situation prevails in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacists and medicine retailers show different reasons for the shortage of major life-saving drugs – the main being the artificial shortage and imports issues of the raw material.

After prolonged shortage of Panadol and Azomax all over the country, insulin is not available easily at pharmacies, which has panicked millions of patients having type-1 and type-2 diabetes, who take insulin to manage their blood sugar level and to prevent chronic health complications.

In a random survey conducted in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, WealthPK learned that there is a shortage of medicines for depression, asthma, cancer, and angina. In particular, Panadol, Paracetamol, Azomax and Loprene have become rare and are available in a very limited stock.  

The patients who cannot find insulin and other medicines on routine rates at pharmacies have to get these medicines from those who have it on higher prices, and thus a practice of exploitation is continuing unabated. Azmat Malick, a resident of Peshawar, said druggists are selling insulin at exorbitant prices as they know that the patients are now even willing to buy it on double rates to meet their needs.

Nadeem Zafar, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing Association (PPMA), told WealthPK that the deprecation of rupee against dollar resulted in soaring prices of medicines. He said the pharmaceutical industry of the country is mainly import-based, and raw material used in medicine manufacturing is generally imported from China and India. He said rupee depreciation, unavailability of raw material, and rising prices of medicines are the main causes for a crisis-like situation in the pharmaceutical sector.

Nadeem said the prices of medicines increased following the increase in production cost and extra shipping expenditures, adding that additional sales tax on imported raw material and a 17% tax on packaging items of medicines on part of the government also contributed to this situation.

Shahzad Ali, a pharmacist from Rawalpindi, said that customers usually buy medicines of a particular brand of their choice, and refuse to buy the medicines of same formula manufactured by any other brand. He said such customers insist on buying medicines of their favoured brand despite shortage, and refuse to buy the same medicine of another brand which is available quite easily and on the normal rates. He said doctors and other related people must create awareness among customers about handling the medicines shortage in the market wisely.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk