Need to rein in pharmaceutical companies

What a pity that we get nothing pure in this Land of the Pure. Contaminated drinking water, polluted air, donkey’s meat under the garb of beef and impure food and what not!The latest in this long tally of impurities is the sub-standard medicine which is killing over 7 lakh people every year. The Drug Regulatory Authority is very much there but it has failed to nab those who are manufacturing and then selling spurious medicine to the people. Let us be frank. The PMA has not been putting its foot down forcefully on the black sheep among them who are instrumental in promoting spurious medicine in the market. The Pakistan Medical Association could have done a lot to eradicate this menace had it pulled its weight against the errant doctors. For instance, one of the effective action that it can still take in this connection is that, through check and balance, it can ensure that no doctor in its ranks patronise medicine of any pharmaceutical company which is notorious for manufacturing spurious drugs. Those medicos who receive costly gifts from the medical reps of the companies, with doubtful credentials, for recommending their branded medicine, in return of this favour, need to be identified by the PMA and examplary punishment given to them. As if this wasn’t enough, many pharmaceutical companies have arbitrarily increased the price of their medicine. Their arbitrariness and haughtiness is just not on. The proper course for them is that if they ever feel any genuine need for making any increase in the price of any medicine they should approach the Health ministry which, in turn, should refer their case to an experts’ committee comprising all the stake holders, like the medicos, parliamentarians, journalists and consumers. That committee should then broach the issue threadbare to determine whether or not there was any genuine case for any increase in its price. The pharmaceutical companies simply cannot be allowed to increase price of any medicine without taking all the stake holders into confidence and without any concrete justification.