60 essential medicines vanish from Pakistani markets due to spike in production cost
The News: With the economy shrinking and rising inflation in Pakistan, around 60 essential medicines, including suicide-prevention drugs, have vanished from the market due to the spike in the cost of production, prompting psychiatrists to fear high suicide cases in the country.
“All the brands of Lithium Carbonate are not available in the market for last two to three months. This is the most effective medicine for the treatment of several psychiatric illnesses including bipolar disorder. If this drug is not made available any soon, many people with psychiatric illness may commit suicide”, renowned psychiatrist and former president of Pakistan Psychiatric Society (PPS) said.
Similarly, some other essential medicines, including methylphenidate for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and clonazepam drops drops and tablets for epilepsy in children and adults, are also not available in the market, physicians and pharmacists said.
Several other psychiatrists at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Shifa International Hospital Islamabad and Mayo Hospital Lahore as well as psychiatrists in Peshawar also confirmed that relatives of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder were moving from pillar to post for Lithium Carbonate but none of its brands were available in the market.
“There are some alternatives to this medicine but they are not effective as Lithium Carbonate, said Iqbal Afridi, adding, “The pharmaceutical company and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) were requested to ensure availability of this drug as hundreds of patients are suffering due to shortage of this important medicine.” Another senior pharmacist Salwa Ahsan from Islamabad said the medicine Lithium Carbonate was not available throughout the country, adding that the raw materials cost had gone way up and companies were no more manufacturing them.
“Nine pharmaceutical companies used to produce these drugs but now none of the companies is manufacturing them. Officials in the local pharmaceutical industry claimed over 60 medicines including those used for the treatment of Tuberculosis, psychiatric illnesses, neurological disorders including Epilepsy, anti-depressant medicines, anti-coagulants (blood thinners), pain-killers, anti-hypertensive and several other essential medicines are not available in the community pharmacies.
A list of medicines available with The News and survey of several pharmacies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad revealed that several important medicines for the treatment of TB, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, depression, cardiovascular disease and others were not available as pharmaceutical companies were not manufacturing them due to high cost of production.