Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has ordered the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to freeze the prices of medicines across the country.
A three-member bench headed by the chief justice heard suo motu notice in Supreme Court (SC) Lahore registry against an increase in medicine prices.
During the hearing, Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti said pharmaceutical companies increased medicine prices on their own before 2013.
According to the policy of 2015, 2,000 cases were wrapped up while a two-year period was granted to print barcode on medicines.
To this, the chief justice remarked that the court could not intervene in matters pertaining to policy, but added that printing of barcodes on medicines should be put into practice.
The court also ordered the federal government to appoint a permanent chief executive for DRAP at the earliest.
He also ordered work be started for treatment of kidney disease and those pertaining to Hepatitis C.
The chief justice also questioning the additional attorney general over the prevalence of Hepatitis C in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
On March 1, SC directed DRAP and all the pharmaceutical companies to sit together and prepare a road-map for the reduction in the prices of medicine.
A three-judge bench headed by CJP Nisar heard the suo motu on the prices of medicine.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, representing the pharmaceutical companies, requested the bench to direct DRAP to pass a speaking order on their applications.
The chief justice said that medicines in Pakistan were expensive, while in India those were very cheap as there was no issue of patent in India.
He asked, which forum or tribunal, examines the standard of the medicine.
The chief justice said the other issue was that the medicines were not very effective.
Makhdoom said that there were 2,000 applications pending before the DRAP and also many seats were vacant.
One person is doing everything. Not a single hearing was conducted in the last three months, therefore, people have to run to court for justice, he said.
Secretary National Health Service told the court that he took up the post four years ago.
He admitted that there were anomalies in the 2015 drug policy.
The secretary said that they sat with all the stakeholders for one whole day back in 2015.
After that, he requested the companies to send the minutes of the meeting, but they sent the minutes just seven days ago.
The secretary said that he was ready to sit down with the stakeholders again to overcome the anomalies.
The chief justice directed the secretary, the DRAP chairman and all the stakeholders to sit in the conference room and come up with a roadmap for reducing the drug prices, only after that they would pass any order.
