40 drugs not available in market due to pending govt price approvals

Around 40 medicines that have already been registered in Pakistan remain unavailable to patients because the federal government has yet to approve their prices. The delay has left thousands of patients, including those battling cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases, with limited treatment options, forcing many to depend on costly personal imports or smuggled and unregistered medicines. The pending medicines include Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), one of the world’s leading immunotherapy drugs approved internationally for more than 20 cancers, including lung, breast, cervical, kidney, bladder, stomach and skin cancers. Other important cancer medicines awaiting price notification include Nivolumab, Irinotecan, Dasatinib and Leucovorin.