KARACHI: Committee for drug quality control to be formed
KARACHI, July 13: The health ministry is contemplating to constitute a steering committee comprising representatives of WHO, the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and the ministry for random checking of the quality of drugs available in the market.
Federal health secretary, Ejaz Rahim, speaking at the concluding session of the workshop on “Good Manufacturing, Storage and Laboratory Practices” here on Saturday said the tripartite committee might emerge as an efficient tool to see that the quality of drugs were not compromised and to also ensure that they were affordable to the people.
Proper and prompt monitoring of adverse drug reaction was also needed and the steering committee could play its due role in that regard too, he said.
The two-day workshop in Karachi was the last in a series of workshops jointly organised by WHO and the ministry across the country to help the drug industry emerge strong enough to meet the open market economy situation.
The secretary said the government of Pakistan, instead of extending unrealistic protection to the industry, had helped it to have an in-built mechanism which could guarantee the quality of drugs at competitive prices.
“It is under this very scheme that a fresh investment of Rs8 billion has been made in the industry since 1999. Two thousand five hundred new drugs have been registered and 32 new drug-manufacturing units have started production during the last three years,” he said.
He strongly denied that the policy might have resulted in unethical promotion of medicines.
On the contrary, he said, this had led to a stiff competition in the market enabling people to have easy availability to a wide range of quality medicines.
The secretary claimed that the efficacy of the drugs manufactured in Pakistan was much better than the drugs produced in most of the developing countries.
He said the government was fully cognizant of the issues related to registration of drugs. “We have an efficient appellate system where people or organisations having any objection can always register their reservations to be duly reviewed by a team of experts and take appropriate decisions,” he said.
WHO programme officer for Sindh, Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi, said the industry was competing against time and all the identified lacunas have to be plugged before 2005.
With regard to the role of WHO and the ministry of health in the effort, he said the thrust had to be on public-private partnership, and the WHO along with the health ministry would facilitate the industry to meet the WTO challenge and maintain its strong existence.
Shields were also presented to the speakers and organisers of the workshop. Lt-Gen Mohammad Aslam, director general health, Dr Farzana Chaudhry were also present on the occasion. — APP
