LAHORE, Jan 3: Pharma stakeholders demanded on Thursday that the Punjab government make public Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL) reports into the deaths due to cough syrup intake in Lahore and Gujranwala last month.

The demand was raised at a meeting attended by manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, chemists and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) representatives at the LCCI.

LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar, PPMA North Chairman Saleem Iqbal, LCCI Standing Committee on Pharmaceutical Industry Convener Khwaja Shahzeb Akram and former PPMA chairman Amjad Ali Jawa were prominent among the others.

The participants called for the withdrawal of case against the Reko Pharmacal owner, end to harassment of distributors and wholesalers and an immediate ban on over-the-counter sale of medicines.

They said they were perturbed at the registration of the murder case against a licensed pharmaceutical manufacturer despite the activation of the Drug Act of 1976 that deals with the manufacturing and sale of medicines.

They said that under the Drug Act of 1976, the manufacturing of drugs was controlled by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) that is well in place.

The participants said the arrests of distributors and wholesalers did not make sense as they were not selling products of any single company.

Mr Iftikhar said the entire trade and industry was worried at the situation being faced by the pharmaceutical industry and its stakeholders.

He said they had appealed to the government to initiate a judicial enquiry into the issue to fix responsibility.

He said the industry was being subjected to embarrassment sending wrong signals to the world thus adversely affecting exports of medicines.

Khwaja Shahzeb and Amjad Ali Jawa called for the registration of herbal, homeopathic and ayurvedic medicine manufacturers.

They said the manufacturing of spurious drugs by a licensed manufacturer having an investment of Rs20 million was out of question.