It was a different time when doctors used to identify the disease by checking the pulse of a patient. At that time, doctors were far more professional and excelled at their craft. No one greased their palms. These life savers were really God gifted and participated in this vocation without any selfishness. They had no interesting commissions and other incentives offered by various drugs makers. The value of a human life was way more than anything else.
But nowadays, this very important sector has become a major market source for the drugs business. The money has importance in every sector of the society. The clinics, hospitals, medical stores and pharmaceutical companies have jointly started playing with the lives of poor just because of the money factor.
In our country, the multinational pharmaceutical companies have arbitrarily raised the prices of all the medicines by at least 50 percent in just last six months while the local manufacturers have raised the prices by some 200 percent. These companies are of the view that the raise in medicine prices is linked with the overall price-hike and inflation.
The pharmaceutical industry has gotten into a strong position due to the weak National Drug Policy, which provides space for drug crimes and makes it simple for the involvement of health department’s officials in corruption and other malpractices.
In 1973, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had gifted an appreciatory drug policy to the nation in which all the arrangements were made to save masses from the medicine mafia. The government of the same party later made major amendments in the policy, encouraging the medicine mafia and creating problems for the poor.
The pockets of drug inspectors who are supposed to check irregularities by medical stores and their owners, have also been full with the black money that restrains them from performing their duties honestly.
We urge the federal and Sindh health ministers to take notice of the situation and initiate strict action against the medicine mafia.
Translated from the original Sindhi by Aftab Channa.