Staff Reporter
Karachi
Healthcare professionals have asked the Minister NHRS to bring transparency in DRAP’s pricing systems as per WHO recommendation so that our industry can compete on a global level and can be recognized by the world healthcare bodies as a prospective candidate in procurements and research initiatives.
At the recently held annual gathering of the member states of the World Health Organisation and health professionals have discussed global drug pricing issue and emphasized bringing more transparency. There is a certain mechanism through which new molecules or drugs are priced in developed countries.
It is an established fact that it takes huge R&D cost to bring one new molecule to market with high risk of failure at any point of time from drug discovery till final trials.
At global seminars, authorities are seeking transparency of cost incurred during discovery & clinical trials with clear understanding of need to bring new therapeutic option. However, comparing same with Pakistan pricing regime of drugs is unreasonable & insane as both have completely different context. The recent price discussion between Government and Industry is related to molecules which are old and available in the market since decades.