Renowned thinker and Head of Chair in Islamic Studies & Research, Yenepoya University Mangaluru, has lambasted the Pharmaceutical Industry for charging “unimaginably” high prices for medicines. He was speaking at the inaugural function of the Pharmacy Week organised by College of Pharmacy at Yenepoya University, Mangaluru.
Dr Javed Jamil said the price of a medicine selling at Rs 100/- should not be more than Rs.30/- and in order to maximise profits they are exploiting the people. He said that while Pharmacy can be described as extremely important, medicines being the fourth most important requirement of life after food, cloth and house, the pharmaceutical industries are being allowed to play with the lives of the people.
“In a world dominated by neither religion, nor ethics, nor sciences but by Economics, even the democracy has transformed into corporatocracy, a government of the corporate, run by the agents of the corporate and for the corporate,” he argued.
Dr. Jamil said the Qur’ān describes several dozens of plants which have medicinal value as well as animal products like “secretion from the body of the honey bee” having “medicinal value for mankind”. Describing a story of Prophet Moses, he said that God has made all the three – prayers, medicine and doctors, important for life and healthiness of life.
The learned speaker urged the students to always look for righteousness in profession. He categorised morality into “Scientific Morality”, “Religious Morality” and “Commercial Morality” and said that “while Religious and Scientific moralities are almost the same telling about what is right and what is wrong, Commercial Morality cares only for the commercial interests irrespective of the dangers posed to health and social peace.” He said that more than 70 million people die globally every year due to the practices prohibited by religion but they (the prohibited practices) are not banned just because of their economics.
Dr. Jamil said the Indian Pharmaceutical industry is the biggest in the world in terms of volume and the third highest in terms of value and will become a 50 billion dollar industry by the year 2020.
The function was also addressed by Dr. Vijayakumar, Vice Chancellor of Yenepoya University, guest speaker, Mr. Unnikrishnan and Dr. Gulzar Ahmad, Principal of Pharmacy College.