Asia Times: Drug import ban endangers health, say critics


	June 21, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Drug import ban endangers health, say critics
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - Public health groups and drug importers in Pakistan have slammed a government ban on imports of some medicines which they say will make life-saving medications unaffordable for most.

They are accusing the government of being in league with transnational drug companies in Pakistan that want to monopolize the sales of these medicines. But Pakistani medicine manufacturers are backing the government's decision to put some 39 drugs on the import ban list, saying this would give a boost to the local pharmaceutical industry. Some 40 transnational companies (TNCs) control nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's estimated $900 million medicines market. More than 400 local companies hold the rest.

The government insists that the ban is not on essential medicines and is meant to cut down unnecessary imports that are draining the country's scarce foreign exchange reserves. It says the restriction applies only to drugs that are also manufactured locally by Pakistani companies or TNCs. ''Drug importers are creating a negative impression that the ministry has banned life-saving drugs. We have only banned fancy medicines and vitamins,'' asserts a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Islamabad.

However, drug importers and public health advocacy groups are not convinced. ''Either they don't understand what fancy drugs are or they are simply bluffing. All banned drugs are essential, life-saving medicines. I wonder why health officials are saying they banned fancy drugs and vitamins,'' says Ayyaz Kiani, a pharmacist with a consumer protection group based in Lahore.

The critics ridicule the government's claim that the ban is meant to save foreign exchange. ''Drugs form only 0.42 percent of the total import bill. If the government is really serious, it should start with non-essential items like toys, toiletries, sweets and chocolates which make up for 32 percent of imports,'' says Khawaja Javed Akhtar of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Importers Association (PPIA).

The PPIA claims that the ban would create a shortage of life-saving medicines and push their prices beyond the reach of most people in a country with an average daily per capita income of slightly more than a dollar. Drug prices are said to be already high in Pakistan compared to other South Asian nations. A survey by the Netherlands-based Health Action International found that 70 percent of the most commonly used medicines are more expensive in Pakistan than India.

Opponents of the ban claim the government is appeasing local and foreign companies that were demanding a 10 to 15 percent hike in medicine prices for more than a year. The TNCs were specially vocal, accusing the government of not keeping to a 1993 agreement to raise prices annually. ''This ban on imports would give us some respite by giving us greater market access as our cost of production had risen by almost 90 percent since 1993 due to inflation, rupee devaluation and government levies,'' says a marketing official of a drug TNC in Islamabad.

Local manufacturers are also pleased. ''The ban would not only save a large amount of foreign exchange in these days of financial constraints, but also provide badly needed stimulus to the local pharma industry in both national and multinational sectors,'' says a press note of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.

However, drug importers fear that the ban would create a shortage of life-saving medicines as the local pharmaceutical industry does not have the capacity to meet domestic demand. ''The vacuum created by the absence of imported drugs will be filled by multinational companies,'' says a press statement issued by the drug importers association.

It has been estimated by UN agencies that almost half of the people in the country have no access to medicines. ''In such circumstances, a slightest increase in the prices of medicines would have an enormous impact on the people and increase the incidence of morbidity and mortality,'' says Zafar Mirza of the health advocacy group, The Network.

According to Mirza, the government should instead have banned the import of non-essential medicines like food supplements and hundreds of vitamins.

(Inter Press Service)

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