Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Drug Regulatory Authority was held under the chairmanship of the Caretaker Federal Health Minister Dr. Nadeem Jan.

Secretary Health Iftikhar Shallwani, Additional Secretary Kamran Rehman were present in the meeting.

Chief Executive Officer Drug Regularity Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Asim Rauf briefed the Health Minister about the functional challenges and performance of the DRAP.

Dr. Nadeem Jan emphasized his unwavering determination to improve the health sector and protect the health of the citizens. We will endeavour to make effective strategies to improve DRAP’s performance in the short term, said Dr. Nadeem Jan. Due to this integrated strategy, the efficiency of DRAP definitely improve, he said.

People’s welfare is my agenda and mission. We will not compromise on the quality of medicines. Effective measures will be taken to increase the export of medicines, he said.

It was informed by the CEO DRAP that medicines worth 713 million dollars have been exported. Pakistan’s market has great potential. Export of medicines can be doubled through concerted efforts, said the Health Minister

We have to work wholeheartedly for the prestige and honor of Pakistan. We will ensure uninterrupted supply of life saving medicines. Artificial shortage of medicines across the country will not be tolerated, he said.

Health Minister gave direction to CEO DRAP to ensure all necessary measures to prevent artificial shortage of medicines and form a coordinated strategy with the provinces to prevent fake and unregistered medicines.

DRAP will also launch a complaint mobile application to end the shortage of DRAP medicines. Public and retailers can report drug shortages through geo-tagging by using this application

There should be monitoring in real-time of the drug shortage to trace the complaint of shortage. Actions taken on complaints should be seen by the complainant, he said. We will endeavour to bring improvement in the health sector in line with vision of Caretaker Prime Minister.