Daily Times

Caretaker Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Nadeem Jan said on Monday that integrated strategy had been formulated to protect people from diseases and epidemics. He was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of the ‘Isolation Hospital’ at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore.

The minister said that the government was determined to strengthen the border health services to deal with any sudden outbreaks as epidemics had no borders limits, adding that surveillance mechanism at international airports of the country were being improved to tackle the situation.

Dr Nadeem Jan said that the government was ensuring implementation of international health recommendations.

He announced that a conference on Global Health Security Agenda was going to be held in Pakistan and this was for the first time that this kind of international conference was being arranged in Pakistan in which public health experts from all over the world would participate. He recalled that it was a matter of prestige that Pakistan would host such international conference. He was of the view that by organising such international conference in Pakistan, it would pave the way for improvement, modernisation and development in the health sector of the country.

Meanwhile, a delegation of pharma exporters called on Heath Minister Dr Nadeem Jan in Lahore and discussed various issues related to pharma sector. The meeting decided to create a comprehensive strategy to increase exports of pharma drugs as Pakistan’s pharma sector had lot of potential. The health minister emphasised the need for quality of medicines as per international standards in order to increase exports in pharma sector. The sector had been facilitated by DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) in drug registration process to increase its exports to $1 billion, he added.

Nadeem Jan said that he was taking measures to improve the performance of DRAP, adding that various reforms were being introduced in the department in order to increase the pharma exports. An In-line registration system were introduced in DRAP for the facilitation for pharma companies through which regulatory approval could be achieved in shortest time.