Medics believe that prolonged shortage of panadol and paracetamol besides other fever drugs from the market during the current wave of Corona and the spread of dengue may prove to be a precursor to a big predicament.
The Nation visited various pharmacies of the city and tried to assess how severe this problem has become. During the survey, it was learnt that the panadol and paracetamol were not easily available. Pharmacies were not giving more than four to five pills of the two medicines to the patients.
When asked for the reasons, medical store owners said they were not getting enough supply from the manufacturing companies.
A member of Pharma Association Pakistan Khalid explained the core of the issue and said that GSK is the only drug manufacturing company at this moment which is manufacturing the panadol and paracetamol.
“A huge gap in supply and demand has become evident in the market as other companies have abandoned making these drugs”, he informed.
Maintaining this Khalid further added depreciation of Pakistani rupee against US dollar is one of the factors because some of the material used as active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for manufacturing medicine is imported from abroad.
“Moreover, most of the other potent chemicals are imported which are then processed here in Pakistan. The Pakistan medicine industry is not viable to produce such chemicals and essential API in Pakistan”, he added. Drawing attention to another reason behind the shortage of fever medicines, he said smuggling of drugs to Afghanistan was also a strong factor behind the scarcity of medicine.
“Summglers and the mafia smuggle the medicines to Afghanistan at exorbitant prices to make huge profits.
Speaking to The Nation, a senior drug regulatory official in the health department informed there are multiple factors causing this shortage of fever drugs in the market.
“Almost 90 percent of the pharma industry in Pakistan relies on imports. Only around 20 to 25 drug molecules out of about 400 essential medicines are manufactured in Pakistan and the rest of them are imported.
Due to the rising and falling value of the dollar, the companies are reluctant to buy raw materials used in manufacturing of drugs”, he said, adding that medicine manufacturing has not been viable in Pakistan for the past one year.
He said the pharmaceutical companies have been consistently saying that it was not possible for them to sell panadol at cheap prices due to the increase in the cost of materials and depreciation of rupee against the US dollar. The government had also imposed a GST tax of 17 per cent.
“They have requested the federal government to increase the retail price of the drugs. Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has also recommended the government to increase the prices keeping in view the demands of the manufacturing companies’ ‘, he further stated.
The drug regulatory official urged the public to take alternative options for panadol and paracetamol.
“Alternative drugs such Fabrol and Calcole etc are equally efficient and effective as panadol and paracetamol.
The regulatory authority has also launched an awareness campaign regarding alternative drugs”, he said.
Rupee depreciation, high cost of ingredients