LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended a notification issued by the caretaker Punjab government empowering pharmaceutical companies to set medicine prices.
LHC’s Justice Shahid Kareem heard the petition filed by Lahore resident Muhammad Islam, who was represented by advocate Nadeem Sarwar. The petitioner has made the federal government, officials of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and others parties in the case.
The petitioner argued that the cabinet had delegated the authority to set drug prices from DRAP to pharmaceutical companies. He added that the pharmaceutical companies would increase the medicine prices putting additional burden on masses.
The petitioner requested the court to declare the notification granting pharmaceutical companies the authority to set drug prices null and void and to order a rollback of recent increase in drug prices.
The court, while issuing an order to halt the implementation of the notification, invalidated the notification granting pharmaceutical companies the authority to set drug prices.
It should be noted that the federal government had increased the prices of 146 life-saving drugs a day earlier, and a notification to this effect had also been issued.
The price of medicine used for treatment of cancer, vaccines, and antibiotics were increased by the federal government.
