20000203

Govt to ask firms to produce drugs hoarded by pharma 'cartels'

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to ask other companies to produces those drugs which some of the pharmaceutical companies will hoard, it is learnt.

Sources said the government wants to discourage those pharmaceutical companies that create artificial shortage of drugs by creating cartels.

Many life-saving and essential drugs have at the moment are not available on retail counters country-wide, simply because some companies on an understanding with their competitors have stopped supplying these drugs in the market.

The recent example is Mercaputrine, which is a life-saving drug and is used in blood cancer patients. The government has formally asked a Lahore-based pharmaceutical company to produce the same drug under a fresh licence from the Ministry of Health.

The drug shortage for profit motives only is a problem for the public and embarrassment for the government, sources said. And, the government was firm to curb the menace, they concluded.