PESHAWAR, Sept 26: Speakers on Sunday urged drug manufacturing firms adopt better quality control practices and promote traditional drugs.

They recommended this at a two-day workshop on 'Adoption of good manufacturing practices and quality assurances' which was jointly organised by the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.

Dr Farzana Malik, chief national coordinator of the drug control and traditional medicines division expressed concern over the rapid depletion of resources and said that it seemed that the people would soon need to revert to traditional medicines and there was a need to prepare for it.

She said that by doing this, a large chunk of foreign exchange reserve could be saved that is presently being consumed in the import of material for manufacturing non-traditional medicines.

Highlighting the efficacy of traditional drugs, she said that homoeopathic and unani drugs were effective when manufactured according the international standards. She said that by 2050, the world population would reach 12 billion and it would be difficult for the people to buy alleopathic drugs, adding that they were costlier because a single drug costed between $500 million to $700 million and need between 12 to 15 years of intensive research.

She said that while there were many effective drugs, all of them had some side effect or other while traditional drugs were cheaper to manufacture as raw material needed for their production was abundantly available.

She quoted from a World Bank study and said the present global drug sales volume was $80 billion and it would rise to $3 trillion by 2050, adding that if manufacturers produced high- quality drugs, they could draw their share from the immense potential drug market.

She said that there were 400 units which produced traditional drugs in Pakistan and their total sales amounted to Rs5 billion, adding that the bulk of the country's requirements were met through the import of these drugs.

Stressing the need to follow drug registration laws, she said that it was important for better quality control. In the wake of the rapid depletion of oil, forest, water and other natural resources, the manufacturers would find it hard get raw materials for synthetic drugs, she said.

"It is about time we start preparations to meet the impending challenges by adopting good manufacturing practices to provide cheap and effective drugs to the people and end the monopoly of the multinational companies", an official said.

Dr Amanullah Bismal, Syed Ashraf Kamal, Shakir Zia, Dr Mohammad Zeeshan Danish, Dr Hamad Ahmed, Dr Mohammad Ali Chaudhry, Dr Sanaullah Khan and Sardar Mohammad Rafiq also spoke on the occasion.

They highlighted the effects of new synthetic drugs and said they caused numerous diseases. They cited various examples in this regard; new drugs had been ineffective against malaria in Thailand, tuberculosis in Portugal and Japan.

They also cited the bird flu scare in 1997 followed by Nepar virus two years later. They urged extreme caution in the manufacture of drugs and said that it should be handled by experts and qualified people at all levels.