The shortage of active narcotic ingredients will result in a huge healthcare crisis in the coming months as pharmaceutical companies have not been allocated their import quota, jeopardising the production of anti-anxiety pills and other drugs.
Experts from the medical and pharmaceutical industries expressed these fears while talking to reporters on Wednesday. They said the import of the ingredients is normally completed by the beginning of the year. They said this year the process is wrought with chaos as after the devolution of the health sector. They added that the cabinet division was not processing the routine paperwork on the pretext that the health department has been delegated to the provinces and that they do not have any jurisdiction. The pharmaceutical companies’ representatives said they were in a fix as how to procure the highly sensitive ingredients and start production to avert shortage and price hikes of the drugs.
They said due to the delay in the quota allocation of ingredients such as ephedrine, codeine, lorazepam and temazepam, the supply of important, daily use drugs, including cold and cough syrups, anti-anxiety, anti-depression, psychotropic and epileptic drugs are likely to fall short of demand in the near future. They said the situation has become worse due to the negligence of the authorities concerned. As a result, the manufacturing process have been jeopardised for daily use drugs, like narcotic analgesics for pain; sedatives and hypnotics for sleep disorders, anxiety disorders and depression; tranquilisers and antidepressants for depression and anxiety. According to the industry figures, the total number of marketed brands selling narcotics and psychotropic drugs are over 800. The value growth remained at 17 percent in 2010-11 over the last year while the unit growth stood at 12 percent during the same period, indicating that the consumption of these products is growing. Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Psychiatry Professor Dr Rizwan Taj said the shortage of these drugs would result in crisis for the patients because narcotic substances dull centers in the brain and relieve depression, thereby improving the quality of life of the patient.
With increasing age, incidences of bone and joint disorders and cancers are increasing, and those patients require strong narcotic analgesics. In the absence of narcotic drugs, these patients are given heavy doses of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) which result in complications like hypertension, renal impairment and gastrointestinal perforations that could lead to death, he added.
Industry representatives said the failure of the Narcotic Control Board to allocate the active ingredients’ quota will result in a shortage of drugs, leading to inevitable black marketing and price hikes. According to the rules the international narcotic control awards quota to Pakistan’s narcotic control board, which then allocates the quota to the pharmaceutical companies. As per norms the allocation of these ingredients take place before the start of every year for timely production commencement which then makes the availability of the drugs made of such ingredients possible in the market in time.
Pharma industry warns of anti-anxiety drugs shortage
