The rupee has risen around 13 per cent against the dollar over the last two and a half months, but the reduction in the cost of raw material has failed to induce drug makers to provide relief to patients by decreasing medicine prices.
Multinational drug manufacturers have categorically ruled out such a possibility.
Some companies were allowed to raise prices under inflationary adjustment which means that rates of 70pc products had remained unchanged from 2001 to 2013 during which dollar gained from Rs52 to Rs108.
Pharma Bureau Chairman Shahab Rizvi told the media that the industry continued to bear pressure of rising cost of production since 2001 when one dollar was equal to Rs52 as compared to Rs60 in 2008 which further jumped to Rs107-108 two and half months back.
Citing a recent study, he said prices of commonly used drugs when compared with similar brands in the region were cheaper in Pakistan, which could be proven from the fact that local medicines were found in foreign markets but foreign medicines were hard to find in Pakistan.
