KARACHI: Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA) has demanded that the entire process of submission of cases by the drug companies for registration and price increase of medicines should be made online to facilitate the industry and for preventing corruption in the system. PPPMA Central Chairman Dr. Kaiser Waheed made this demand as he was one of the speakers at launching of a software system by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) at the Drap office in Karachi the other day. The software named “Drap-Team” is aimed at online tracking, evaluation, and monitoring of functioning of both the pharmaceutical firms and Drap field offices in the country. Dr. Waheed cautiously welcomed launching of the software system saying that it was premature on the part of the drug sector regulator to do such an effort until and unless all the processes and subjects of Drap related to the Pharma industry were made available online. He said it was not plausible on the part of the Drap to run a software programme in isolation without making available its entire system online for the applicants of different cases of medicines on behalf of the industry. “Our biggest issue is that a large part of industry in Pakistan is not so technically competent that it could acquire such a technology on its own. Therefore, this process will take considerable time,” he said. So far the time being the adoption of this software programme by the industry should be done on a voluntary basis rather than adopting this system on a mandatory basis, said the PPMA chairman. “Our industry wants that the submission of dossiers and documents for registration and price increase of medicines could be done online as going to Islamabad for the purpose and then doing follow-ups of this procedure is quite a cumbersome task for the industry people,” he said. He said that instances of corruption in the systems of Drap would be minimized with making online the process for submitting cases by the industry for registration and price increase of medicines. Drap Chief Executive Officer Dr. Muhammad Aslam who launched the software said that at present the drug industry regulator had to depend on manual operations and working of the organization. Published in Daily Times, July 16th , 2017.