Dollars’ shortage causing scarcity of lifesaving drugs
Pakistan faces shortage of cancer, diabetes and heart drugs as dollars dry up
By Chronicler
Islamabad
Pakistan
The scarcity of dollar besides severely affecting other sectors economy of the economy has caused scarcity of lifesaving drugs in Pakistan and the lack of these medicines has put the lives of many patients at the stake
According to the sources in medicine markets and the doctors, the medicines which have become short from the market include the medicines which are required to treat epilepsy, cardiac issues, cancer, diabetes, and some others.
Currently Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves stands at around $4.5 billion which are barely enough to meet the requirement of one month imports of the country.
There was an unannounced ban of import of raw material which is used by the drug producers to manufacture some medicines locally.
This phenomenon has started causing a shortage of medicines in the market which are used to treat a variety of diseases, mainly the lifesaving drugs.
Image taken from internetCurrently there is a cancer drugs shortage in Pakistan and the diabetes drugs shortage in Pakistan as well, the market sources and some media reports suggest.
This is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan heavily relies on imported medicines when it comes to treat patients affected with cancer. The issue pertaining to dollar scarcity has also caused shortage of insulin which is required to treat patients with diabetes. So currently in Pakistan diabetes medicines are in shortage as well. So is the case with hematology drugs which are also facing shortage in Pakistan at the moment due to the same factor. Hematology is the branch of medicine involving study and treatment of the blood. The shortage of cancer, hematology medicines, issues revolving around diabetes drug availability in Pakistan is turning into a menace in the country. The non-availability of these drugs have paved the way for black marketing of these medicines and some dealers have started overcharging from the customers on the grounds of having limited stocks of them.
Medicines like Adriblastina, Cisplatin and Carpsol which are essential for cancer treatment were no longer available due to the stated reasons. Same is the case with medicines which are needed to treat blood cancer as Gleevec and other medicines required for treatment of it are short from the market.
The dealers are optimistic that if the government allows them to import these drugs, then they would be available for distribution in February.
The government is yet to announce its measures to tackle the situation and to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of these drugs.
The government of Pakistan, the ministry of health and sciences needs to take measures on a war-footing basis so that the patients could have easy access to these medicines.
Generally making investment in medicines is considered a very profitable business in Pakistan as the ratio of the profit is very high compared with actual investment in this sector.
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