Increase In Drug Prices.

The availability and the pricing of medical have become an issue in Pakistan. Despite the presence of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap), these two remain the keys issues being faced by the population. DRAP recently admitted that prices of drugs were increased beyond the regulatory body's own policy during a meeting of a National Assembly's subcommittee on national health services (NHS) at Parliament House. With rising inflation and the average consumer's buying power decreasing, the rise in the prices of medicines is quite alarming. Medicines are already short in the market due to the trade ban in India and despite the government's decision to lift the ban on trading medicines, there is a reluctance from the Indian side causing the prices of the medicines in the local market to go high.

DRAP officials, however, claim that the matter was managed soon after its revelation. This April, then National Health Services (NHS) minister Aamer Mehmood Kiani was removed and Dr Zafar Mirza was appointed a special assistant to the Prime Minister on health. Rumours claim that Aamer Mehmood Kiani was responsible for the increase in prices but no one in the regulatory body has confirmed the news. While the regulatory body seems to have managed the prices of drugs within Pakistan, there is no guarantee that similar...

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