Court directs govt to settle drug prices issues

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered the federal government to control drug prices issues within four weeks.

As per details, a two-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the case.

During the hearing, the counsel for a private pharmaceutical company said that the order of the apex court was violated in determining the prices of medicines. The SRO issued by the government was not in line with the court order, he added.

The CJP asked what did the court order. The council responded that the court had ordered to freeze the prices of medicines at the level of the year 2013. The top judge said that the court did not issue any such order on the prices of medicines.

He said that the drug regulatory authorities in the world were very strong while in Pakistan, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) was working under pharmaceutical companies. DRAP kept fluctuating drug prices, he added.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked why it took so long to fix drug prices. The CJP said that the DRAP should determine the drug prices in a day.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked did the government decide on the prices after the recommendations of the task force. He said the government could not take up the matter indefinitely.

The additional attorney general said that the government had received the recommendations of the task force but the government had not yet made a decision in this regard.

The additional attorney general said that the Drug Pricing Committee (DPC) had no authority to determine drug prices.

The CJP said that the legitimacy of the task force was nowhere in the law. He said that the DPC determining drug prices but the government formed a task force on the decision of the DPC.

He observed that employees were working on deputation in DRAP. No one was working on deputation at the director level in DRAP, the DRAP official responded. Later, the court ordered the federal government to decide on drug prices within four weeks.