Tackling spurious drugs: Drug regulators to coordinate efforts

DRAP urges provinces to upgrade their respective testing labs

ISLAMABAD: Drug regulators of the country have decided to enhance their coordinated efforts against those drug manufacturers who were violating licencing, registration, quality and other rules of making medicines.

This was decided in an inter-provincial meeting of officials from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and the provinces at the authority’s offices in Islamabad on Tuesday.

During the meeting, drug regulatory officials from the four provinces and Islamabad shared their experiences, discussed their issues and deliberated on a way forward. Similarly, pending amendments in relevant legislations were also reviewed with the provinces to consult their respective departments before providing their feedback to Drap.

They agreed to coordinate their efforts against violators of drug registration, licencing, quality pricing, and other rules. The also decided to pool their efforts against the menace of spurious, substandard, and fake drugs makers and traders.

Drap CEO Aslam Afghani said that it was the joint responsibility of the authority and the provinces to help quality and safe drugs gain access to the markets and hence to the patients.  “With such joint and coordinated efforts, it is the people of Pakistan who will benefit,” he said.

The officials also agreed to hold a periodical meeting after every two months, so that all stakeholders can be taken on board and efforts can be coordinated through updates amongst DRAP and provincial governments on issues and future plans.

Various actions against illegal and unauthorised manufacturing of medicines and their sales by the federal inspectors and by provinces, especially by the Punjab government were presented, for both allopathic, alternative medicines and nutraceuticals.

For the nutraceuticals, Drap officials said that they had rejected several cases for nutraceutical companies and these records have been uploaded on its website so that provinces can review their files and can take appropriate actions.

Officials from Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa shared details about the recent actions which they had taken and notifications issued against spurious manufacturers.

Balochistan presented details about the illegal import of spurious drugs from neighbouring countries and how these drugs were being repacked locally as health products or alternate medicines. Balochistan requested Punjab and K-P for their working papers on procurement procedures such as ‘quality and price tendering’ method, instead of ‘price only’.

Noting that Drap was trying to secure WHO pre-qualification for its central drug testing lab in Karachi, the authority acknowledged efforts by the Punjab to set up their own drug testing lab. Other provinces were urged to upgrade their respective labs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2016.