A ceremony was held to sign an agreement to provide free medicines to cancer patients under a public-private partnership.

Giving a briefing at the ceremony, the Federal Health Secretary said that free medicines will be provided to cancer patients in Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The medicines will be provided in joint cooperation with the Government of Pakistan and multinational pharmaceutical company Roche. Thousands of cancer patients will benefit from this five-year agreement at PIMS Hospital.

Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has signed an agreement to provide free medicines to cancer patients under a public-private partnership, while the MD of a private pharmaceutical company also signed the agreement.

The Health Minister said that 13 million people in Pakistan have fallen below the poverty line due to various diseases. Cancer is a deadly disease whose treatment is very expensive. 98 lakh rupees are spent on a cancer patient over a period of five years.

He said that with this agreement, every 741 patients will be provided with free treatment at a cost of about Rs 10 million per patient on a first-come, first-served basis. The treatment facility will be available at PIMS Hospital to patients from Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.