ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) recently rejected an increase in medicine prices by the government.
PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said that despite providing relief in times of extreme inflation and high unemployment, the PTI government had hiked the prices of essential medicines by a whopping 150 per cent. According to her, this is the 10th increase in medicine prices since 2018.
She said: “While other countries are making life-saving drugs free, the PTI government is busy playing politics during a national health crisis. Let’s not forget, last year the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) hiked the prices of 253 life-saving drugs by a massive 25-35 per cent.”
She added: “It is DRAP’s job to make sure that pharmaceutical companies do not hike medicine prices without any scrutiny. It is alarming that there is no price regulating mechanism for medicines under this PTI government. If this is not incompetence, then what is it?”
The PPP Vice President, while rejecting this move, said that governments were focused on improving healthcare systems but still, the PTI government had bowed down to pharmaceutical companies to make the poor and vulnerable suffer.
