ISLAMABAD: After significant criticism regarding its performance, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has finally taken action against 20 pharmaceutical companies over complaints of poor quality, by cancelling the registration of medicines and suspending licences.

The Drug Regulation Board, which became defunct following the 18th Amendment, was re-established under the Drap Act 2012. While Drap is responsible for ensuring the quality of medicines and regulating their prices, the authority has failed to respond to issued related to these responsibilities for the last two years.

Not only have there been a number of complaints of substandard medicines being manufactured and sold in the market, but Drap has also allegedly been involved in increasing medicine prices.

Companies’ licences suspended, medicine registration cancelled after complaints of poor quality

On Nov 28, 2014, Drap increased drug prices by 15pc, but the move was denotified the next day by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Practically, however, the prices could not be reduced because some companies obtained stay orders from the courts.

Last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) launched an inquiry against Drap officers on the charges of corruption and possessing assets beyond their means. This year, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered Rs380 million from a company, collected by illegally increasing medicine prices with the involvement of Drap officials.

At the beginning of this year, a number of pharmaceutical companies once again increased medicine prices after obtaining stay orders from the Sindh High Court, claiming it was not viable for them to manufacture at the existing prices.

However, parliamentary committees have called on Drap representatives to reduce prices, authority officials believe companies cannot be forced to reduce prices because they have obtained stay orders from the high court.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) issued a statement, which said that the Registration Board and Licensing Board took action against poor quality drugs being sold in the market.

“Registration of as many as 13 products of 9 companies has been cancelled. Registration of 8 products of 7 companies has been suspended and legal action has been taken. Moreover licenses of 4 companies have been suspended for violating the good manufacturing practice (GMP),” the official statement read.

But a ministry official said the Registration Board expired on July 29, and he was not aware that any action had been taken against the companies during its last meeting.

NHS Secretary Ayub Sheikh told Dawn that the decision to take action against these companies was made during a meeting on July 28. “However, the minutes of the meeting have been finalised and approved now, so implementation of the decision has been announced,” he explained.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016