The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Tuesday assured the Lahore High Court that action would be taken against firms violating the Drugs Pricing Policy.
The assurance was given by the CCP in a reply filed before Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh who was hearing a petition seeking directions for evolving a mechanism for fixing the prices of medicines in the country.
The CCP said it could be approached for action against pharmaceutical companies or importers if they were found violating the set policy guidelines.
Earlier, officials of the Drugs Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) along with the federal law officer appeared before the court and informed the judge that the Drugs Pricing Policy had been prepared.
Submitting a copy of the pricing policy, the DRAP officials said that as per policy, three methods were devised for determination of the retail price of medicines. They said that the price of locally manufactured drugs would be determined on the basis of manufacturing cost after addition of markup at the rate of 70 per cent, whereas the price of imported drugs would be determined on the basis of landed cost with addition of markup at the rate of 35 per cent.
The officials also informed the court that the price of imported drugs (finished form) with local labelling and images on them would be calculated after inclusion of packaging cost. The court was further apprised that any importer or manufacturer could approach the authority for a review of their drug once in three years.
After assurance by the CCP, the court disposed of the matter.
The petition had been filed by Zubair Niazi through his counsel Shiraz Zaka, submitting that multinational medicine manufacturing companies increased the price of medicines every year due to a lack of guidelines for fixing the prices.
The petitioner had said the DRAP could not formulate any mechanism for an increase or decrease in medicine prices yet. He had requested the court to order the DRAP for devising a mechanism to fix the prices of medicines.