Islamabad:
A parliamentary body was informed on Tuesday that rising drug prices have become a serious problem in the country, while the pharmaceutical industry left the country due to corrupt practice.
The Federal Minister of Health told the Senate’s Standing Health Committee that the decision to lift restrictions on medicine would be made following a study report.
The committee meeting, chairman of Senator Amir Waleeduddin Chishti, reviewed questions related to drug prices and the pharmaceutical sector.
The President quoted the Federal Minister of Health as saying that even though the government was concerned about the increase in drug prices, “you must have heard that pharmaceutical companies have left the country”.
The Minister of Health also informed the committee that was previously submitted in the event of litigation only against the CEO of Pharma companies. “We have changed this procedure,” he said.
Senator Humayun Mohmand noted that the increase in medicine prices had become a major problem in Pakistan.
Senator Dinesh Kumar raised concerns about unethical practice in the medical sector and said “our women are exposed to coercion, with forced operations performed during childbirth … doctors have become butchers”.
He claimed that commissions were taken both on medicine and laboratory examinations and demanded data on how many pharmaceutical companies had sponsored foreign trips for doctors.
