ISLAMABAD: An international ‘drugs registration system’ was being developed in the country to make it at par with the standards of World Health Organization’s (WHO) specific format. According to an official of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), after achieving this international standard based on Committee on Trade and Development (CTD), Pakistani pharmaceutical companies would be able to register their medicines from concerned authorities of major countries of the world. He said that with this achievement, Pakistani companies would be able to get membership of Pharmaceuticals Inspection Cooperation Scheme (PICS) that would help these companies to register in every country of the globe. This step would help increasing the figure of the country’s medicine export which currently stands at Rs 167 million against India’s figure of Rs 20 billion and Bangladesh Rs 1.8 billion. He said that after joining PICS not only would the country’s export touch the highest figure in export of medicines but local pharmaceutical exporters would get opportunities. “PICS would endorse Pakistani pharmaceutical companies as reliable exporters of quality medicine. This would help improving the quality of local companies while the country’s people would get quality medicines.” He added He said that federal drug surveillance laboratory would soon start functioning in the country. The laboratory would be international standard while labs would also start working at provincial level. He added by saying that under WHO assessment scheme, DRAP would observe gaps and potentials while its transparency would be checked by WHO. These laboratories would be pre-qualified from WHO in order to improve their credibility. He told the media that this government introduced a Drug Pricing Policy for the first time in the country’s history, where fixing prices was done with a Consumer Price Index based system. He said that under the drugs pricing policy of 2015, the government strictly controlled the prices of drugs. It was the duty of the government to fix the prices of those medicines that fall under hardship regime. He explained that there was a set procedure to increase prices like submission of request (certified data) to the government by pharmaceutical companies to raise prices as fixed at ratio of 4% to 6% and up to 8% in accordance with Consumer Price Index (CPI). He said that the government would take strict action against the companies resorting to illegal price hike, to safeguard the interests of the public. The action will serve as a discouragement to those elements involved in illegal price hike of drugs. He added by saying that all-out efforts have been made to ensure that drugs are provided to the masses at affordable prices.