KARACHI, January 11, 2019: Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government has allowed phrama companies to increase medicine prices to support the industry.
According to a notification issued by the regulator the PTI government has recently announced the much awaited raise in drug prices by 9% to 15% to support the Pharmaceutical industry that has been under duress owing to rising input costs and currency devaluation.
A similar notification was also issued by Drug Regulatory of Pakistan (DRAP) last week where the regulator announced new retail prices for more than 800 drugs under hardship cases.
The issue of drug price was in pending for the last many years but PML-N not allowed increase in their tenure to facilitate the masess.
Analysts believed this is largely positive for the Pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan as it will not only address the long due demand of pharma industry to raise drug prices (given pending price approval for multiple hardship cases), but will also provide some respite to the industry’s margins which have lately come under pressure owing to PKR devaluation of more than 20% in 2018.
Note: Detailed story will be uploaded later.
