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LAHORE, June 13: The government is expected to ease the process of registration of new drugs for consumer use in the next few weeks as it moves ahead with its plan to deregulate the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
Besides registration of new drugs, the government regulates the drugs prices and even the size of their packing and printing.
Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood is reported to make a presentation on the deregulation of the pharmaceutical industry on June 22. The government intends to reduce the role of the federal health ministry in regulating the industry.
Sources in the industry told Dawn here on Thursday that the reduction in the government controls over the industry may also involve a change in the registration process with better availability of drugs for the patients.
“Currently patients some times are denied instant availability of the latest medicines required to treat cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart failure, etc., because of the slower process of drugs registration,” sources said.
At present, when a company applies for registration of a medicine to the health ministry, it is first sent to local doctors who usually do not review it, said the sources.
“In comparison, the drug regulatory authorities in the US, the UK, the EU and Japan employ full time experts such as toxicologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and to cardiologists etc, to examine the data before approving a drug for consumer use,” they added. Hence, they insisted, the process of drugs registration in Pakistan needed to be reviewed in view of limited or no resources.
Though the sources admit the situation was improving during the last six months or so, they complain while some companies manage to get their drugs registered quickly, the others have to suffer and wait for long.
“As a result of the slower registration process, a new medicine takes up to three years to hit the market in the country despite the fact that authorities in the US or the EU, where drugs registration procedures are the most advanced in the world, have already approved it.”
