May 13, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 12: A committee constituted to amend the Drugs Act 1976 has suggested import of medicines both for human and veterinary purposes from 49 countries.

Earlier, the committee had recommended to block imports from 15 countries.

An official source told Dawn that the committee, constituted by the central licensing and registration board, in its recent meeting allowed imports of medicines from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Indiana, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA, Russia and Yugoslavia.

Earlier, the committee, in its meeting held on February 25, had decided to ban import of drugs from countries like Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, North Korea, Poland, Croatia, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Monaco, Bulgaria, Slovak Republic and Philippines.

The source said after the decision, the Pakistan and Chemist Druggist Association and different companies tried to convince the committee to reconsider its recommendation.

They argued that a number of manufacturers of the countries from where the imports were restricted, maintained scientific offices in Pakistan and had made large investments here.

Moreover, many manufacturers from these countries had entered into joint ventures with local pharmaceutical companies.

They maintained that in some cases, even under-developed countries hosted manufacturing facilities of a reputed company, mainly a multinational. Besides, some of these countries had been included in the European Union.

They also informed the committee that a few drugs registered for import from these countries were essential in nature as these were used for cancer treatment.