LAHORE: The Pakistan Poultry Association Pharmaceutical Wing has appreciated the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Chairman Dr Aslam Afghani for his commitment to resolve the poultry sector issues on priority basis.
The members of PPA North Zone Pharma Wing, in the lead of Khalid Saleem Malik, met with the DRAP chairman and apprised him the issues faced by the poultry sector of the country. The PPA delegation urged him to expedite the process of enlistment of poultry products and lift undue sanctions on the poultry medicines as it could cause severe shortage of poultry medicines in the country.
The association members said that poultry is one of the biggest employment-provider and source of revenue to the government but it could face crisis-like situation due to some scrupulous elements in the industry. The delegation said that current regulation to enlist the importer and products may create a crisis leading to shortage of these basic products used by the poultry farmers.
The delegation suggested that the poultry alternative medicine and health products which have been already legally imported may kindly be allowed to be sold. They said that the companies with Form number 6, whose consignments are at port, may be allowed to get them cleared and sold in the market. They said that the criteria of documentation for the enlistment of veterinary/poultry products be formulated according to their country of origin and international practices.
The chairman was informed that consignments of veterinary medicines are held at ports, causing huge damage to the importers, urging the DRAP to get the issue resolved. The delegation informed him that so far only limited number of companies has been issued Form number 6 (Enlistment as Local Importers/Agents), while none of companies/importers have been issued Form number 07 for enlistment of products.
The DRAP chairman agreed with the industry that there must be discrimination between the drugs for human lives and veterinary medicine which were unfortunately, being treated in same way. Dr Aslam assured that DRAP would act promptly and rescue the poultry industry through immediate relief measures.
