The recent notification for increase in prices of a few hardship cases is a revision and not increase, said Tuesday a spokesperson of Pharma Bureau, a representative body of multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in Pakistan. The spokesperson said due to inflation and rising cost of the input materials it had become impossible for the industry to continue producing quality medicines. He said the revision would merely help the industry to continue producing those drugs at break-even, just to keep them available to the patients as otherwise they would have to buy imported drugs at prices as much as ten times higher than the locally produced drugs. The spokesperson said the recent notification by the government to approve increase in prices of few medicines was long overdue and it is much less than the increase which the industry demanded. However, it would help the companies to keep producing these drugs as most of these were being manufactured at loss. The spokesman expressed the hope that the government would consider the price adjustment request by the pharmaceutical companies as they have not been given an increase for the last 10 years whereas the input and operational costs have increased manifold, making it difficult for the manufacturers to produce many important drugs even at break-even.
