By Aamir Lashari
ISLAMABAD: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan ( DRAP) has registered pain killer medicine, Panadol Extend 665 mg which was earlier banned by European Medicines Agency in February 2018, it was learnt.
Even the DRAP has allowed heavy advertisement of Panadol 665mg on mass media, which the experts say playing with the health and lives of Pakistanis as it was adversely affecting the lever and other parts of human body.
On the other hand, Pharmaceutical companies have created an artificial shortage of essential or life saving drugs especially Panadol 500 mg to justify high price of Panadol Extend.
The Young Pharmacist Association of Pakistan has also written a letter to Prime Minister to initiate a probe against the corrupt mafia of DRAP.
The Transparency International Pakistan has also lodged a complaint with the federal minister for National Health and Services, Abdul Qadir Patel for illegally registration of Panadol Extend. The letter said that pharma industry in connivance of DRAP engineered shortage of Panadol 500 mg to creat space for high-dosage variant of the essential medicine.
The Transparency International says It’s been more than a year that Pakistan was continuously facing shortage of Panadol 500 mg. It was pointed out the new variant i.e. Panadol 665mg was prohibited in entire world due to being injurious to human health, but it’s being openly sold in Pakistan.
The price of Panadol 500 mg was Rs.1.70 but new varient of the medicine i.e. Panadol Extend 665 mg is being sold at Rs.5.68 per tablet, which 500 percent higher then the normal Panadol. Transparency has however revealed that pharma industry would generate around Rs.18 billion by manufacturing of new Panadol varient.
