Sindh government has announced that its health department has seized 48 million Panadol tablets hoarded in a warehouse in Karachi.
Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab, while confirming the development in a tweet, stated that legal action against culprits would be taken for hoarding the medicine at a time when it is important for treating the patients.
48 Million Panadol tablets have been confiscated by the Drug Inspector from a warehouse in #Karachi. At a time, when this tablet is important for treating patients, it was being hoarded. Good assertiveness shown by the administration. Legal action is being further taken pic.twitter.com/G54agCJRvT
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) September 15, 2022
GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Panadol, confirmed in a statement that authorities raided one of its warehouses. However, the company sternly rejected the allegations of hoarding the drug.
Earlier this week, Federal Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel had stated in a press conference that pharmaceutical companies are involved in artificial shortages of medicines to pressurize the government to increase drug prices.
It is pertinent to mention here that the demand for Panadol is skyrocketing in the country in the wake of rising cases of dengue and outbreak of diseases in the aftermath of floods, leading to a shortage
Some experts believe that a key reason for the shortage is a decrease in its production as the production cost is exceeding the Maximum Retail Price (MRP), leading the companies to reduce drug production to a minimum level.
