Pakistan's healthcare in crisis: Policy delays cause severe medicine shortages, patients suffer.

• Pakistan is experiencing a severe shortage of essential medicines, including advanced cancer drugs, vaccines, and other life-saving therapies, affecting patients nationwide.
• The scarcity is attributed primarily to policy delays within Pakistan’s regulatory system, not global supply chain disruptions or regional instability.
• A key issue is the government's failure to officially notify prices for newly approved medicines, making pharmaceutical companies reluctant to import them due to regulatory risks.
• The shortage impacts critical treatments for leukaemia, typhoid, polio, rabies, haemophilia, and malaria, depriving patients of standard medical care.
• Experts warn that these delays encourage the spread of smuggled, counterfeit, or unregulated medicines, posing serious risks to patient lives and exposing governance weaknesses.