OIC meeting discusses medicines standards

Islamabad : The need for harmonisation of standards on regulations of medicines and vaccines among regulatory authorities of OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) countries was flagged at the 1st meeting of heads of National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) of OIC member countries at Jakarta, Indonesia.

Pakistan was represented at the meeting by the Chief Executive Officer of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Dr. Sheikh Akhter Hussain. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen collaboration amongst the OIC NMRAs towards self-reliance of medicines and vaccines. Different OIC member states presented their current status with regards to capacity and self-reliance in medicines and vaccines.

In separate meetings with heads and delegates from various NMRAs of OIC member states, Dr. Sheikh stated that DRAP is already working for international harmonization and aims to achieve maturity level 3 in WHO Global Benchmarking.

The meeting was of importance as the 2017 Secretary-General’s Report presented to the 6th Islamic Conference of Health Ministers, held on December 5-7, 2017, emphasized the commitment of the OIC General Secretariat and relevant OIC institutions to carry out efforts for promotion of self-reliance in production and supply of vaccines and medicines in OIC member states in order to improve access to essential medicine, including vaccines.

The meeting was also aimed at ensuring extended cooperation mechanisms among regulatory authorities for capacity building, combating substandard and falsified medicines, irrational medicine use, provision of halal medicines, cooperation in pharmaceuticals regulatory policies and practices, and promotion of national medicine regulatory strategy for progressively achieving the highest attainable standard of health.