The Poison Sellers

Drugs have become an essential element for human existence especially in this modern world. Not the cocaine, heroin, or hashish; rather I am talking about the life-saving drugs, the medicine. "Saving one life is as if saving the whole of humanity." The philosophy, however, is confined to text only. Even the life-savers, the doctors and medical pharmacists, barely act upon this statement in reality.

There are 4000 registered pharmacies in the country according to Pakistan Pharmacists Association. According to CNN reports, however, there are roughly 100,000 medication dispensers across the country. Around 759 pharmaceutical manufacturing companies operate in Pakistan. Although there are only 25 multinational companies in operation, the national and multinationals still share the market even with a ratio of 55% and 45% respectively.

According to April 2019 estimates, the Pakistan Pharma Market is worth US$3.25 Billion where the top 50 pharmaceutical companies hold 90% of the market share. According to the interior ministry's report of a few years before, 45 to 50 percent of the life-saving drugs sold in Pakistan are fake or sub-standard. Although Pakistan established the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) in 2012, around 3000 fake pharmacies are selling counterfeit and sub-standard drugs across the country. It is estimated that one in every three drugs sold in Pakistan is fake. Studies also show that almost 0.7 million people die every year worldwide because of the substandard quality of medicines.

The sale of counterfeit medicine has created a worldwide humanitarian crisis, especially in Pakistan. Selling and manufacturing substandard medicine have become a lucrative business for many. Counterfeit medicines are of dubious quality. These are created with wrong ingredients, or they lack sufficient active ingredients to recover the patient's ailment. These medicines come with many side-effects that affect other vital organs of the human body such as heart, lungs, kidney, and brain instead of healing the patient.

In the search for more monetary gains, most of the Pharmaceutical Companies import cheaper salts from countries like China, India or some other European countries. There have been cases where the medicine is manufactured in a street of Pakistan but the label pasted upon that bottle is of 'Made in US'. From bottle to powder, everything is available locally in markets that represent a huge threat to the public. A layman is usually at the mercy of the pharmacist selling the medicine because the laymen know little about the medicine inside the packing. Unfortunately and shockingly, there have been reports about some seized medicines that included rat poison, brick dust, and even paint. That's how low humans can be for some monetary benefit.

Equally involved are some doctors who prescribe their poor patients to buy such medicines in return for some lucrative incentives. Companies offer such doctors incentives ranging from an LCD to visas for family tours. Doctors of private hospitals and clinics are right to be blamed for flourishing the trade of such substandard medicines. Such corrupt doctors play a significant role in this dirty business. Lucrative marketing incentives offered by national and multi-national pharmaceutical companies easily convince certain corrupt doctors to prescribe their patients counterfeit and over-priced drugs.

High prices from multi-national companies and the inability of the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) are two of the many reasons this illegal business is flourishing. It compels people to buy inexpensive medicines of a local company, often of poor quality. The production rates are the least in Pakistan compared to other Asian countries, yet the selling prices are beyond a poor man's grasp. The irony is that a tablet or syrup manufactured at the cost of 20 to 25 rupees is sold at Rs.250. Second, the incompetency of DRA (Drug Regulatory Authority) is causing the poor public too much, mainly of not having enough staff to counter this dilemma or because of the existence of some corrupt elements. No international standard laboratory for testing the drugs is yet another reason this business is flourishing with every passing day.

The problems and reasons may be anything; however, what matters the most is the solutions to these problems. Thus, I would wish that we as a nation unite against these corrupt elements of the society. It is not about the drug regulatory authority, rather it is every individual's duty to stand against all those who benefit from this lucrative business. We must protest and boycott all such doctors and pharmacies involved in this illegal business of killing the poor masses rather than saving their lives for a day more.

And now finally to take you out of the stroke of depression I may have caused you with the above facts; I just want to share a strange analysis with you. In Urdu, the term "Golly" can mean a bullet as well as a pill. Now those who kill people with the bullets are named terrorists and punished under the law. But those who kill people with the other 'Golly', the pill, are still humanity savers and called doctors that's the irony of the fate at least about the national language.