Senate grills DRAP over drug shortages

ISLAMABAD:

Lawmakers in the upper house on Friday questioned the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on its pricing policies and quality control mechanisms.

During the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Health, Senator Irfan Siddiqui and other committee members pointed out the deepening mistrust in locally manufactured medicines, demanding clarity on the root causes.

Briefing the panel, DRAP CEO Asim Rauf announced a plan to separate drug pricing policy from the authority's jurisdiction, a decision currently under committee review.

Rauf assured that a final decision on this matter would be made soon. He highlighted DRAP's recent digital advancements, including the digitisation of data for 48,000 medicines and the implementation of an online system for drug import and export.

However, Senator Siddiqui questioned the efficacy of DRAP's quality control measures. "If our quality control is stringent, why do people prefer to import medicines from abroad?" he asked while pointing to the public perception that foreign medicines were of superior quality.

The DRAP CEO asserted that the concerns about local medicines were largely psychological.

Meanwhile, Senator Fawzia Arshad expressed frustration, lamenting that substandard drugs continue to tarnish Pakistan's reputation. "Even in my household, we don't trust Pakistani medicines. The nation's trust in DRAP has eroded," she added.

In response to further questioning, Rauf stated that while the perception of foreign medicines being superior was prevalent, it was often unfounded.

He reiterated that the quality of Pakistani medicines meets international standards, as verified by independent global labs.

He assured that DRAP was committed to restoring public confidence, adding he personally used local as they were safe.

The committee also revisited past incidents, including when drugs were sent abroad for testing in 2019 and 2020.

Rauf claimed that Pakistan's medicines would yield the same results as any international lab.

Senator Masroor Ahsan, another committee member, demanded concrete evidence of DRAP's claims.

He called for reports on drug quality, particularly for vaccines like polio, and asked for comparisons between Pakistani medicines and those from countries like Bangladesh and Nepal.

The committee's chairperson also raised concerns about the ongoing sale of substandard medicines in the market, stressing that such issues, no matter how minor, significantly impact the country's reputation.

The meeting also touched on the exit of multinational pharmaceutical companies from Pakistan, a trend that committee members attributed to mergers and regulatory challenges.

Subsequently, the DRAP's CEO was urged to present a detailed report on this matter in the next session.