Alternative medicine: Drug firms must get registered by October

LAHORE:

Drug inspectors will launch a crackdown against unregistered companies manufacturing herbal medicines after the deadline for application of registration ends on October 1, Ministry of Health Drug Regulations Pharmaceutical Legal Expert Noor Muhammad Mahar said on Sunday.

He said the Health Bill for Alternative Medicines 2012 was implemented in May this year. He said 2,400 herbal companies had applied for registration so far and they were expecting at least 8,000 companies to apply before the deadline. “However most companies are reluctant to register their products, two of them are considered well-reputed pharmaceutical companies.”

Under the Act, federal and provincial drug inspectors would launch a crackdown and raid medical stores to seize products manufactured by unregistered companies, he said. Cases will be registered in drug courts against companies which fail to comply.

Mahar said owners of firms that violate the Act could be fined and imprisoned for seven to 10 years. He said companies were earlier given a 60-day deadline to register themselves. It was later extended till October 1. He said most of them had set up head offices in Dubai to avoid registration. The registration fee for a company is Rs10,000; the registration fee for medicines varies from Rs250 to Rs2,000.

He said there were more than 30,000 companies in the country manufacturing herbal drugs and cosmetics without registration and certification from the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2014.