A caretaker government allows pharmaceutical companies to fix medicine prices.
Prices of non-essential medications are expected to rise as pharmaceutical companies are authorized to control prices.
According to reports, after the approval of the Federal Cabinet, the Ministry of Health has issued a notification to deregulate the prices of unnecessary medicines.
Pharmaceutical companies now have the power to set prices for undue drugs. However, it is important to note that they cannot control the prices of medicines listed in the National Essential Medicines List (NEML), which includes 464 medicines.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) will continue to maintain the prices of life-saving drugs. In the last session, the federal cabinet approved the deregulation of drugs not listed in NEML on the recommendations of the Ministry of Health.
According to the recommendations, prices of drugs other than essential drugs in the National List will be exempted from the Drugs Act, 1976. Additionally, essential modifications will be made to the Drug Pricing Policy 2018.
It should be noted that on February 2, the federal cabinet approved the increase in the prices of 146 essential life-saving medicines in its meeting.
During the meeting, the Ministry of National Health Services and DRAP highlighted that citizens can register complaints regarding the non-availability of medicines in the market through the authority’s online portal.
