ISLAMABAD: Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) has announced to seek Customs, FBR, FIA and other law enforcement agencies’ help to make its campaign against spurious, fake, counterfeit and substandard drugs a success.
In this campaign, DRAP teams will meet with heads of Customs, FBR, FIA and other law enforcement agencies, for improving coordination for effective and stringent enforcement of regulatory compliance and to resolve various hurdles and challenges in this regard.
According to an official of DRAP, the campaign was launched with a focus on country’s people access to quality assured, safe, effective and affordable medicine.
He added that this is another series, following an earlier three months similar campaign along with provinces that proved very effective in reducing the spurious, fake, substandard and counterfeit drugs from the country. It resulted in sealing of hundreds of sales outlets, illegal and non-compliant manufacturing units, the arrest of many people, over 1,000 FIRs, hundreds of imprisonment and fines over Rs 100 million, throughout the country, last year.
This also resulted in a big deterrent against the involved culprits in this heinous crime against humanity, he added. In addition, this extended campaign will also include a drive for improving drug quality through integrated and systematic regulatory compliance for manufacturing facilities cGMP and ensuring effective good distribution practices, good pharmacy, and sales practices.
In this regard, DRAP teams along with provinces and security agencies will conduct market surveillance throughout the country, through strategic inspections and drug sampling for spurious drugs and will enforce regulatory compliance to a higher level. DRAP teams will also provide guidance to industry and pharma trade for improving the quality of manufacturing, distribution, sales and dispensing of therapeutic goods, he added.
He said that the DRAP will also organize media engagement and will coordinate with social reformers and consumer protection NGOs to mobilize them for public education and to campaign for not accepting illegal and unregistered products and do not compromise on quality of drugs while purchasing, ensuring to buy only genuine products from pharmacies, maintaining good pharmacy practices and only registered and legal drugs. He added people need to be educated that they should not respond to illegal advertisements for unregistered products with fake claims. Public will be guided and requested to cooperate and inform
