September 1, 2003	Monday	Rajab 3, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 31: The health director general has been directed to implement 15 per cent margin on the retail trade as well as for the leftover medicines destroyed by floods in July 2001.

This was stated by Federal Health Minister Nasir Mohammad Khan while talking to a delegation of Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association, Rawalpindi, who called on him on Saturday and discussed the problems concerning chemists and druggists.

According to a press release issued here the minister said the absence of qualified chemists at the drug stores indicated the faulty policies of previous governments.

The minister recalled that the Punjab government had decided to open a school for pharmacy back in 1988 and hold examinations for B-category chemists. However, the minister regretted that the decision could not be implemented till now.

Regarding spurious drugs, the delegation clarified to the minister that former representatives of the associations from the Punjab had collected about 600,000 samples from the chemists shops in different cities but analytical reports had given proof of the fact that these samples were not of spurious and substandard medicines.

In his detailed report about the expired drugs, the health minister cited the examples from Europe and the US.

He appreciated the Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Associations’ stand on abolishing bottlenecks by removing shortcomings adopted by the multinational and national companies regarding existing system regarding expired drugs.

The minister said he had directed the implementation of this procedure immediately.

The association had full-fledged discussions with the minister on the issue of wholesale discount.