KARACHI: Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal has revealed that 50 pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan increased the prices of certain medicines by up to 2,000 per cent, with the hikes also identified in a third-party audit. The government has issued show-cause notices to the companies concerned.
In a statement, the health minister said pharmaceutical companies had been allowed to increase the prices of non-essential medicines after 2022. However, several companies allegedly took undue advantage of the policy and implemented excessive price hikes.
He added that a committee headed by the Finance Minister had been established to review decisions regarding medicine price increases and examine the matter.
Mustafa Kamal said he supported reasonable increases in medicine prices, arguing that keeping prices commercially unviable could lead to the disappearance of essential medicines, including cancer treatments, from the market.
He explained that if pharmaceutical companies were unable to recover their costs, they might stop supplying certain medicines, creating serious difficulties for patients who depend on them.
The minister stressed that the government needed to develop a sustainable solution to ensure the availability of medicines while maintaining a balance between patients’ affordability and the pharmaceutical industry’s commercial viability.
