Pakistan Drug Prices Set To Rise

Prices of both imported and locally-produced pharmaceutical products inPakistan are to increase 10%-12%, following the latest devaluation of the rupee by 8.7%, drug industry sources in the capital, Karachi, have said. The increase will be the fifth in the last 21 months. The last rise was in November last year. Local commentators say that even the 4% relief on the prices of medicines which the government passed on to consumers in mid-August last year will be wiped out with the latest hike.

Only last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had assured a meeting in Lahore that the prices of a number of drugs in general use would be reduced from October 25 and, while this may be the policy, drug industry sources say it will be obliterated. The finance director of Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, Farrukh Faiyaz, said that the prices of imported medicines would go up by 10%-11%. A member of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and managing director of Lisko Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, Nazar Talib, said there would be an increase of some 11%-12% in the price of locally-made drugs. He added that local producers would incur an additional 3%-4% in duties for raw materials and packaging.