LHC moved against hike in drugs price

LAHORE: An increase in drug prices has been challenged before the Lahore High Court for being ultra vires to several constitutional provisions.

Through a public interest petition, Advocate Nadeem Sarwar, submitted that Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) increased the prices of live saving drugs by nine percent and 15 percent all other medicines in connivance with the pharmaceutical companies.

He pleaded that section 12 of Drug Act 1976 gives powers to the Drap to increase prices without providing any formula for calculation of prices. He argued that the unfettered powers of the Drap are needed to be structuralised to eliminate all possibilities of nexus between the authority and the pharmaceutical companies.

The lawyer stated that many other developing countries have already adopted the mechanism of generic medicine long ago and now are reaping its benefits. He points out that then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had presented a policy in Pakistan of going generic as India did but the years that followed reversed the plan as pharmaceutical companies resisted the move. The petitioner contended that the government’s policy to enhance price is in violation of Article 9 and 38 (d) of the Constitution. He asks the court to set aside the impugned notification issued by the Drap and order the government to structuralise the powers of the authority.