Expensive TB medicines

Media reports tell about the dearth of medicines at government run Tuberculosis treatment centers wherefrom poor patients are given free treatment. There are also complaints that substantial leakage of medicines is taking place from the pharmacies of these centers, the price of which have shown almost 100 percent increase. It may be recalled that in President Musharraf government negotiations had been held with multinational pharmaceutical companies including Abbot and Shazo to lower the prices of medicines prescribed by doctors for the treatment of Tuberculosis. Fiscal incentives had been also provided to them.

The policy of masterly inactivity of federal and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa governments to control the prices of life saving drugs is responsible for it. It takes three to nine months for Tuberculosis patient to fully recover from this fatal disease. The non-availability of the required medicines at TB Control centers will create risk to lives of the people who cannot afford the purchase from medicine market to complete the duration of several months long treatment.