DA should fix price of medicines

Recently, we came to know that the cabinet approved a National Medicine Policy, which the Health Ministry had drafted earlier. Undoubtedly, it's a laudable step. A number of commendable features were included in the said policy, but one vital feature was missing. The Drug Administration (DA) did not propose that it would fix the price of medicines. Only 450 medicines of the generic name have been put under compulsory price control measure, the remaining ones will remain as they were. 

If the power of determining price is kept in the hands of a handful of pharmaceutical companies, no good features of the proposed policy will have any positive effect on the patients. The proposed policy needs to include a provision authorising DA to fix the price of all medicines. 

Ashraf Uddin, Savar