ISLAMABAD: Amid increasing prices of life-saving medicines, the National Accountability Bureau asked the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) on Thursday to remove discrepancies in its working so that the people and pharmaceutical companies could be facilitated.

“The awareness and prevention regime of NAB has asked Drap officials to reduce discretion in the registration process,” the bureau’s spokesman Ramzan Sajid said after a detailed meeting between officials of the two organisations.

Drap informed NAB that 14,000 applications for drug registration had been scrutinised on the directives of the bureau, 4,624 of them had been found in order and 1,850 cases had been settled.

NAB proposed that the status of applications should be placed on the Drap website to facilitate the manufacturers, especially those in remote areas.­­­

The regulatory authority is being held equally responsible along with the drug manufacturing companies for the increase in prices.

According to media reports, despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s order for withdrawal of the increase in prices, multinational pharmaceutical corporations have raised the rates by 30 per cent on average.

The Young Pharmacists Association has reportedly done an extensive market survey which noted that the total impact was a 30pc increase in the medicine prices.

However, the national health services ministry and officials of Drap have been claiming that there has been no price increase.

It has also been learnt that the legal authority of Drap has been in question since Dec 12, 2012, and no employee has been recruited in it.

On the other hand, the ministry claimed that it had launched an operation against companies selling medicines at rates higher that those approved by the authority.

Federal drug inspectors raided warehouses of companies last week and sealed 12,223 syrup bottles, 4,176 packets of capsules and 2,325 of tablets which were being sold at higher rates, it said.

According to a press release, teams of inspectors raided the warehouses of the Islamabad-based Wilson’s Pharmaceuticals in I-9 sector and Scotmann Pharmaceuticals in I-10 and found them overcharging.

The inspectors seized the stocks of the products which the firms were selling at higher prices and further action will be taken under the Drugs Act of 1976.

About implementation of the directives issued by the prime minister after he took notice of the matter, the ministry claims that companies have obtained stay orders against the withdrawal of a notification issued a few months back for increasing the drug prices.­­­­­— APP