THE Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has decided to allow registration of medicines on an emergency basis on the plea that it will incite an increase in supply of the life saving medicines in the market. Acting Health Minister Dr. Nadeem Jan has held out an assurance that all possible steps would be taken to ensure there is no shortage of essential medicines in the country. A pharma park will also be established in Islamabad for local production of medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients would be started.
The decision comes in the backdrop of reports that medicines for the treatment of cancer, epilepsy and diabetes are either in short supply or unavailable in the market. Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association has understandably described the move to allow emergency registration of drugs as a positive step. The association links the shortages to issues pertaining to pricing and there have been persistent demands for an across the board hike in the prices of all drugs. This is despite the fact that there are credible reports about over-invoicing during import of raw materials and various studies suggest prices of many drugs in Pakistan are much higher than their counterparts in neighbouring or regional countries. No doubt, emergency registration has the potential to help overcome shortages and imports may bring stability to prices of essential medicines but this should not be done at the cost of quality and safety. A WHO study showed that despite stringent regulatory mechanisms, the total number of fake drugs in the United States stood at one percent of the total pharmaceutical market whereas this proportion was up to fifty per cent in some countries. Import and use of medicines must be allowed after thorough scrutiny and reviews as any compromise would make life-saving drugs as life-taking drugs. Caution is needed in view of adverse impact on human health of the Corona vaccines that were administered without acquisition of reliable data.
