DRAP plans model pharmacies to provide life saving drugs

Notification issued to establish some 14 such pharmacies in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore

ISLAMABAD: The shortage of required drugs for those in dire need has cost many lives while the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) will establish model pharmacies for the purpose to combat this setack. The establishment of these pharmacies will ensure the provision of life-saving drugs.

The notification has been issued to establish some 14 such pharmacies in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and other big cities of the country in the first phase.



According to the DRAP notification available with the Daily Express, the authority will establish model pharmacies in 14 major cities of the country, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan, Quetta, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Abbottabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and Loralai in the first phase while directions have been issued to the all the regional officers of DRAP to identify prestigious licensed pharmacies in aforementioned cities so that they could be declared as model pharmacies.

Further, the pharmacies, which would be declared as model pharmacies, will have to ensure the provision of life saving drugs whereas the Provincial Department of Health, Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Pharma Bureau, Pakistan Chemist, and Drug Association has been instructed to ensure the availability of all the essential medicines, including life-saving drugs round the clock throughout the country.



Further, The Federal and Provincial Drug Inspectors have been directed to submit reports on a weekly basis regarding the supply and availability of medicines in respective areas.

Moreover, the government will also appoint focal persons for this project while two Whatsapp groups have also been made for this purpose.

The project will expand its roots in other cities after the success of phase one.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2019.