131 life-saving medicines vanish from Pakistan 

The federal government has claimed that the country has run a shortage of 131 medicines including life-saving drugs, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation, and Coordination reached out to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to address the grim situation on a war footing as the medicine shortage is posing a serious threat to the healthcare system in Pakistan.

The official of the health ministry wrote a letter to DRAP pointing out that there has been an acute shortage of life-saving drugs in the country, 

The letter adds that at least 131 medicines are not available in the country including Islamabad’s market. “Most of the drugs not available in the market are from multinational pharmaceutical companies,” the letter adds. 

Secretary Quality Control Board Islamabad urged the DRAP to take measures for an uninterrupted supply of medicines in the larger interest of the hapless patients. 

The official further indicated that a number of multinational companies have stopped production over the dispute over drug prices. 

The DRAP official replied that the authority had recommended price hikes for most of the extinct drugs. 

The official added that the issue of the non-availability of medicines is being carefully reviewed by the authority. 

Expecting the shortage of essential and life-saving drugs in the country the federal ministry also reached out to the Ministry of Finance to resolve the issue of Letters of Credit (LCs) being faced by the pharmaceutical companies while importing raw materials for medicines in December.

The dollar shortage in Pakistan resulted in the LC issue being faced by the companies while trying to import the raw material for medicine synthesis.