Islamabad: A multinational pharma company said that it has been forced to suspend production of the most commonly used painkiller Panadol in Pakistan over the government’s delay to address price issues. The news has alarmed both health practitioners and patients.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said that the manufacturing of Panadol tablets, Panadol Extra tablets, and Children’s Panadol liquid range is being suspended due to negative margins after a rapid increase in paracetamol raw material prices and failed negotiations with the government. “Manufacturing of the Panadol range on negative margins is unsustainable and despite exhaustive efforts of the company to mitigate this matter through dialogue, the situation is now beyond our control,” said Farhan Muhammad Haroon, chief executive of GSK Pakistan, in a letter to the prime minister’s office.
GSK produced about 5.4 million Panadol tablets in the last 12 months and ensured continuous supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, dengue fever crisis, and floods across Pakistan despite incurring heavy financial losses, it said. “We are one of the few multinational companies left operating in the country,” the company said in the statement. However, the company said it is open to resuming supplies after the federal government approves price increases to cover the impact of raw materials.
Health experts urge government to take urgent measures
Health practitioners say that the shortage of widely used pain-relief drugs could affect the healthcare of millions in the country. “Though there are alternatives, Panadol is one of the most common over-the-counter painkillers in Pakistan. It is affordable for the patients and is considered effective by doctors. Suspension of such medicine could severely impact healthcare in a populated country like Pakistan where there’s a shortage of healthcare staff. Also, many people who cannot afford to go to the clinic, mostly use Panadol for rapid relief,” Dr Humayun Warraich, president of the Young Doctors Association Pakistan, told Gulf News.
Dr Warraich, who is a resident orthopaedic surgeon at Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi, asked the government to “pay close attention and take urgent measures” to resolve the issue with the multinational company so that “people do not suffer” from the crisis.
Post-flood recovery
Panadol uses paracetamol as its basic ingredient for reducing pain and fever. Pakistan has been witnessing a shortage of Panadol products in the local market with increased demand as the country is grappling with a spike in dengue, malaria, and other water-borne diseases after cataclysmic floods. Health experts say the decision to halt the production of painkillers in Pakistan could impact the recovery process of flood survivors. Qazi Mansoor Dilawar, chairman of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), said that the suspension of Panadol production could affect healthcare in Pakistan since GSK was producing up to 80 per cent of paracetamol.
