Legislation to introduce bar coding on medicines soon

Islamabad

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has been working on the instruction of bar coding in order to curb the menace of spurious drugs. Legislation for this purpose will be finalised soon. Buyers will be able to check whether a drug is genuine or spurious through decoding with the help of their mobile phones.

DRAP CEO Dr. Muhammad Aslam shared this information during a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Health held under the chairman ship of Khalid Hussain Magsi here Tuesday. The minister of state and secretary for health also attended the meeting.

Moreover, the government has also drafted legislation for imposing punishment and fine for unauthorised increase in prices of drugs by pharmaceutical companies. To this effect, a fine of Rs1-10 crore and three years of imprisonment will be imposed on the owner of the manufacturing company; Rs1-10 lakh fine and two years of imprisonment on the distributor, and Rs1 lakh fine and one year of imprisonment on the retailer.

The DRAP chief said in order to ensure the availability of less sparsely used medicines, their prices will be brought down to the level at which these medicines are available in India and Bangladesh.

The DRAP CEO shared that after promulgation of the DRAP Act 2012, necessary legislation has been done for regulating health and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices and medicated cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. He said the standard of laboratories is being improved to improve the standard of medicines. MNA Nighat Shakeel pointed out that despite these measures, people still do not have access to effective and efficacious medicines.

Aslam stated that the World Health Organization has conducted initial assessment of DRAP, and in 2017, the Central Drugs Testing Laboratory, Karachi, will become a WHO pre-qualified and accredited laboratory. To further strengthen inspection system of pharmaceutical manufacturing units, DRAP has started working with Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-Operation Scheme (PIC/S), Australia, and is planning for further training of its officers for effective implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices in pharmaceutical manufacturing units.

Moreover, in order to further strengthen pharmaceutical registration system, DRAP will start receiving registration applications on Common Technical Document format in early 2017. This will further help in increasing national pharmaceutical exports, which are otherwise decreasing, he added.

DRAP recollected that some pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices of their drugs at their own and then obtained stay orders from Sind High Court, Karachi. DRAP is vigorously following these cases in higher courts and has requested the courts for early fixation of dates for disposal of the cases.

The CEO briefed that recruitment process in various cadres of DRAP has been finalised and soon new human resource will be inducted for speedy work.

The meeting of the NA Committee will continue for another two days. Earlier on, the Committee members offered 'fateha' and prayers for victims of the Quetta bomb blast.