Former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Dr. Shahid Rasheed Butt on Tuesday said medicines are becoming more and more expensive and gone out of the reach of the common man. The majority of the population reeling under unprecedented inflation is unable to get proper treatment due to the high price of medicines, he said. Shahid Rasheed Butt said in a statement issued here on Tuesday stated that taxes on the pharmaceutical industry should be abolished so that the people with eroded buying power can get affordable medicines.

He said that the depreciation of the rupee, inflation and the high price of utilities have harmed the pharma industry as well as other industries and their business cost has increased a lot which is being shifted to the masses. The business leader said that almost every day some essential medicine disappears from the market, which increases the public's anxiety. Shahid Rashid Butt said that since last July, the value of the rupee has decreased by 78%, fuel price has increased by 142% per litre, and electricity tariff has increased by 177%, which has affected the public and the business community.

The overall cost of doing business for the industrial sector has increased by three hundred percent while the sales of the pharma industry have decreased by twenty-three percent as people are compromising on healthcare. He informed that there were 36 multinational pharma companies working in Pakistan in the early 2000s and the number is now down to 22 and it is set to decrease further if the situation was not improved.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP