The Rawalpindi National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a reference in the Islamabad Accountability Court against several officials of the Drugs Pricing Committee (DPC) regarding drug pricing issues.
The officials included former DPC chairman Arshad Farooq Faheem, federal ombudsperson secretariat additional secretary, former DPC member and secretary Dr Muhammad Ali, former DPC member Saleem Isharat Hussain , Sindh Health Department Chief Drug Inspector Ayaz Ali Khan, former Punjab chief drugs controller, Pakistan Drugs Testing and Research Center Chief Operating Officer Sabir Ali, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department Chief Drug Inspector Abdul Salam Mufti, Punjab Health Department Chief Drug Inspector Sultan Ahmed, Balochistan Health Department Senior Drug Inspector Rashid Latif Sheikh, former cost accounts organisation director and the Ministry of Finance.
The NAB also filed references against seven pharmaceutical companies, including Maple Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Akhai Agencies, Zam Zam Corporation, Excel Health Care Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Saffron Pharmaceutical (Pvt) Ltd, Galaxy Pharma (Pvt) Ltd and Martin Dow Ltd.
The DPC members in connivance with each other and the beneficiary pharmaceutical companies extended undue financial favours to the companies in the shape of illegal and unjustified price increase of their drugs through DPC meetings held on Oct 9, 2012 and Jan 22, 2013 and subcommittee meeting held on Nov 19, 2012.
The wrongful financial benefits derived by the eight pharmaceutical firms on the basis of price increase come to approximately Rs 1078.08 million till June 30, 2015 after deducting the retailer and distributor margin. This illegal benefit is perpetually being gained by the pharmaceutical companies who submitted inflated costing data and were selling their drugs on prices which were illegally increased by the DPC members.
As per details, the NAB received a complaint wherein it was alleged that the officials of Ministry of National Regulation and Health Services Division and others were involved in the illegal increase of drugs prices through DPC meetings. The prices of the drugs were fixed as per section 12 of Drugs Act 1976 by DPC duly constituted by the federal government.
During the process of investigation, it was revealed that the pharmaceutical companies in connivance with accused officers submitted incorrect and inflated invoices to Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for fixation of drugs prices at exorbitant rates.
Two accused persons namely Tariq Haider and Mian M Khalid were arrested in this case but were later released after payment of their liability through plea bargain. One pharmaceutical company RG Pharmaceutica (Pvt) Ltd returned an amount of Rs 385.12 million through plea bargain.