The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association (PPMA) has urged relevant authorities to continue linking medicine prices with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for uninterrupted production by the pharmaceutical industry. Addressing a press conference, PPMA chairperson Tauqeerul Haq said on Wednesday that medicine prices should be periodically reviewed given the inflation, as up to 95 per cent raw material used in drug manufacturing was imported. "In the past, several essential drugs had gone missing from the market as producing them had become difficult for manufacturers in absence of regular reviewing of prices," he recalled. Haq reiterated that people were forced to use substandard imported medicines when the local industry was unable to manufacture drugs for economic reasons. He added that the federal government had taken the decision to increase the prices two years ago but it was implemented recently to ensure medicines' availability in the market.

Source: The Express Tribune October 15, 2020 06:45 UTC