‘Pakistan faces daunting challenge of substandard drugs’

KARACHI: Doctors have the responsibility to operate with the highest levels of ethics and integrity, as treatments directly touch the lives of the patients, Arshad Saeed Hussain, chairman of Pharma Bureau, said at a conference on Saturday.
The conference, “Ethics and the Future of Healthcare”, was organised by the Pharma Bureau, a representative body of the research-based multinational pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan with an aim to highlight the importance of integrity, the role of ethics in the industry and the industry-physician relationship.
Senator Haseeb Khan said, “It is our collective responsibility to make aware, educate and equip the patients and physicians in Pakistan with the right information, the right diagnosis and the right therapies and treatments.”
Speaking on the issue of counterfeits, Khan said: “Not long ago we have had major catastrophes where we lost a number of human lives at the hands of substandard medicines, whether it is the cardiac patients suffering in PIC, Lahore or the cough syrup that claimed the lives of so many people, these are real challenges and they are a direct result of non-compliance and failure to follow ethics in this industry.”
“The public and private sector needs to work together to ensure that we benefit the patients in Pakistan, follow all ethical, moral and legal obligations and above all, keep the interest of the patients our top priority,” he added.
The importance of such a seminar is timely as widespread availability of counterfeit medicines, rising incidence of improper diagnosis, quackery and non-GMP compliant methods have taken its toll and has taken too many precious lives in the recent past, he added.
“Regulatory challenges in the pharmaceutical sector have emerged over time due to under-resourcing of regulatory institutions and weak accountability mechanisms,” Dr Sania Nishtar of Heartfile said in her keynote address.
“These systemic constraints need to be addressed as a priority in order to achieve access to quality medicines; notwithstanding, we also need disruptive solutions, which have potential to spread a contagion of ethical behaviour in the entire pharmaceutical value chain,” she added.
“Mass serialisation of medicines with a concomitant drive to create stakeholder awareness offers such a disruptive solution,” Dr Nishtar said and urged the industry to rally behind such a solution, which with the help of civil society and media engagement can be truly a game changer.
“Integrity is the bedrock of the relationship between the private sector and the regulator.” “We must uphold that principle as a mechanism of safeguarding intended outcomes in the pharmaceutical sector, both from the access to medicines perspective, as well as the commercial angle,” she added.
Ayse Burcu Acarer of Novo Nordisk, Turkey also gave a presentation on the role of ethics and the future of the pharma industry, which was followed by an interactive session involving participation of the audience.
Leading healthcare professionals and industry leaders such as Dr Tipu Sultan, Dr Shaheen Sheikh, Dr Ahson Qavi and Dr Abdul Bari spoke on the occasion.
All participants agreed that compliance in the health spectrum involved going beyond laws and regulations, establishing new approaches to stakeholder interactions and of building new relationships built on trust and shared values.
They also reiterated that the future for business practices should be primarily driven by values.