The government has ordered a review of the existing drug pricing formula to ensure medicines remain fairly priced, warning that price increases without valid justification will not be accepted. The decision came at a meeting of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) on Monday, chaired by Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Cheema, ProPakistani reported, with Dawn carrying the same meeting.
Cheema directed officials to expedite pending drug pricing cases after being briefed that their case-by-case evaluation was almost complete. He also called for a pricing mechanism that prioritises patients without creating unnecessary hurdles for importers or pharmaceutical companies.
The meeting was attended by Health Secretary Momin Agha, Drap Chief Executive Officer Dr Obaidullah Malik and other senior officials. Cheema acknowledged the progress made by Drap officials and appreciated the efforts of Climate Change Minister Dr Musadik Malik in completing the evaluation.
What the drug pricing formula review will examine
Drap is reviewing the existing drug pricing formula and examining provisions that could prevent fair and accurate price determinations. In plain terms, the formula is the set of rules that decides what a medicine may cost in Pakistan. If the rules are out of date, prices can sit too high for patients or too low for manufacturers to keep producing.
Cheema suggested subscribing to specialised international drug pricing databases to strengthen independent assessments and provide more reliable benchmarks. He said international price comparisons could be useful, but they must be supported by independent checks and balances. That point matters: a price in another country does not, on its own, prove what a fair price should be in Pakistan, where costs, exchange rates and incomes differ.
Officials also informed the meeting that sufficient quantities of the trivalent influenza vaccine recommended by the World Health Organisation were available in the market. Drap had withdrawn the vaccine’s hardship case because its prices were controlled in the international market. A hardship case, in this context, is a manufacturer’s request for a price rise on grounds of financial difficulty. Withdrawing it means the case will not proceed on that basis.
Why the formula matters for patients
Medicine prices reach patients in two ways. If prices rise without justification, households pay more for treatment they cannot avoid. If prices stay frozen for years while costs rise, manufacturers may stop producing a medicine, and patients then face shortages or turn to costlier imported alternatives, smuggled stock or spurious medicines. Both outcomes harm patients, which is why the review must balance affordability with availability.
That balance is the core of the industry’s response. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association urged the government to consult the industry during the formula review. Its vice chairman, Usman Shaukat, said manufacturers shared the government’s objective of keeping medicines affordable and accessible. A fair, transparent and predictable mechanism would benefit both patients and the industry, he said.
Shaukat cautioned that affordability and availability were closely linked. Rising costs of active ingredients, packaging, energy, freight and regulatory compliance, much of which is imported and dollar-dependent, could make products unviable when prices remain frozen for years, he said. That could lead manufacturers to halt production, creating shortages and pushing patients towards costlier imported alternatives, smuggled stock or spurious medicines. The association supported international benchmarks and independent databases, provided comparisons account for Pakistan’s business costs, financing expenses, exchange rate exposure and comparatively low medicine prices.
Shaukat proposed that the revised formula include a clear, time-bound and rules-based mechanism with periodic Consumer Price Index and cost-linked adjustments. That would prevent hardship cases from accumulating and pricing decisions from being delayed for years.
The wider medicine safety context
The pricing review comes as medicine quality remains a live concern in Pakistan. A Sindh laboratory recently found seven samples of six medicines to be counterfeit, with no active ingredient. Separately, the Punjab Assembly has pursued an inquiry into a medicine contract. Price and quality are different issues, but both decide whether a patient who pays for treatment actually receives it.
