The Federal Ministry of Health has refused to raise the prices of paracetamol tablets despite the insistence of pharmaceutical companies.
According to reports, the Minister for Health, Abdul Qadir Patel, presided over a meeting with representatives of pharmaceutical companies to discuss the availability of paracetamol tablets and the problems that the pharmaceutical industry faces in the country.
The pharmaceutical companies had reportedly pressured the authorities to increase the price of the tablets by Rs. 0.98 per tablet which would have made each tablet worth Rs. 2.68. However, Minister Patel refused their demands and suggested a price of Rs. 1.70 per tablet.
He had also rejected the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) proposal to raise the prices of 10 tablets as well, explaining that he could not put the burden of the price hike on the people.
“I am a political worker; serving the poor is my ultimate duty,” he remarked.
In related news, Sindh’s Health Department of the Government raided a warehouse in Karachi, on Thursday and seized 48 million paracetamol tablets that had been hoarded by the drug manufacturing company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
It was purported that the seized medicines were being stockpiled so that they could be sold at expensive rates in the market later on.
However, GSK refuted the claims, saying that it intended to release and distribute the stocks in the’ normal course of business’.
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