The State Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar earlier yesterday said that Pharmaceutical companies could not blackmail the government by getting stay order from the court over matter of medicines price hike.
Talking to a private news channel, she said that the court was being misguided over the issue as stance of the government was still to be heard there.
The minister expressed the hope that after hearing the stance of the government, the court could provide relief on a matter of public interest.
“The government had for the first time in the history, introduced a Drug policy in consultation with all the stakeholders in March last year,” she said.
She said that a mechanism was also finalized in the policy to increase or decrease the prices of medicines but pharma companies did not implement the policy.
Saira Afzal stressed the need to promote medicines manufactured by the local companies which were authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
