ISLAMABAD: As a result of the price increase agreed by the Economic Coordination Committee, a number of medications, including painkillers, antibiotics, and anti-infection drugs, have become more expensive.
As the South Asian nation struggles with skyrocketing inflation and a sharp depreciation of its own currency, Pakistanis, who are already struggling, will have to pay more for routine and essential medications.
The Sharif-led government previously rejected a request by pharmaceutical companies to raise the pricing of more than 100 medications, but the companies persisted and warned of a shortage of certain medications, which drove the government to take current action.
Officials recently agreed to raise the retail costs of generic medications by up to 20% and the prices of critical medications by up to 14%; nevertheless, drug makers are still not happy with the decision and demanded at least a 40% rise.
The increase was authorised as the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) met under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. In a statement, the Finance Ministry said that, “To ensure ongoing availability of drugs in the market, the ECC allowed manufacturers and importers to increase their existing MRPs of essential drugs equal to 70% increase in CPI (with a cap of 14%) and MRPs of all other drugs and lower priced drugs an increase up to 70% in CPI (with a cap of 20%) on the basis of average CPI for current year, i.e. 1st July, 2022 to 01st April.
Officials insisted that the price rise should be viewed as an annual increase for the fiscal year 2023–24 and that the next fiscal year will not see another increase in this category.
The hike follows a global increase in the cost of raw materials, and the government was compelled to import some medicines due to a lack of dollars, which temporarily reduced the supply of several medications and drove up their price.
The country’s lowest and middle classes are suffering the most from the nation’s spiralling inflation, which rose by 0.15 percent to reach 46.82 percent.
