Hepatitis C treatment: Expatriate scientists weigh in on interferon issue

Pakistani scientists in North America ask president to support local production of the injection.

LAHORE:

Pakistani scientists residing in North America have written to President of Pakistan asking him to take steps to expedite the process of producing locally manufactured interferon, a drug used to treat hepatitis C patients.

Over 30 Pakistani scientists living in North America have sent a resolution to the President titled, “Resolution from Pakistani Scientists Living in North America as An Expression of Solidarity with Science and Scientists In Pakistan And to Save Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) of the Centre of Applied Molecular Biology (CAMB) from Ruination”.

“We Pakistani expatriates in North America hereby resolve to preserve, protect and defend scientists and institutions in Pakistan from defamation, ruination and deterioration at the whims of a few individuals,” the resolution reads.

The resolution has paid rich tribute to Professor Riazuddin Sheikh, who has produced interferon locally – declared of international standards.

“We acknowledge and honor the long and arduous struggle by Prof Riazuddin Sheikh in introducing and promoting molecular biology as a new science, its applications in Pakistan and for developing the Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology, and its twin component at the University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan from merely an idea in the 1980s into a prestigious institution whose fame transcends from Pakistan into the Far East, the Middle-East, Europe and North America,” the resolution reads.

The scientists have also paid rich tribute to former MNA Yasmeen Rehman and her colleagues in the Public Accounts Committee which they said made “heroic efforts and historic decisions that made possible what the controlling ministries and science administrators miserably failed to do.”

The resolution is jointly signed by established scientists including Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Professor and Director of School of Medicine University of Cincinnati, Dr Ozair Chaudhary, Former Director, Ontario Institute of Aerologists Albert Campbell Collegiate institute Scarborough, Ontario and Professor and Senior Associate Dean Miller School of Medicine University of Miami USA Dr Zafar Nawaz.

In 2008, Dr Sheikh Riazuddin, along with a group of researchers manufactured a local version of Interferon, which was tested by German and US laboratories and declared compatible to international standards set by the World Health Organisation.

While imported interferon injections cost between Rs700-900 each, Dr Riazuddin had proposed that an injection can be sold at Rs50.

In Pakistan, 15 million people are Hepatitis C carriers, and less than 2% are able to afford the costly treatment.

Professor Riazuddin told The Express Tribune that he is yet to receive an official letter appointing him as the project in-charge. “I cannot do anything or even go to the laboratory without an official document,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2013.