Minister Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Dr Javed Akram has said that there will be no interruption in the supply of medicines to the government hospitals in Punjab.
Punjab Caretaker Ministers for Health Dr Jamal Nasir and Dr Javed Akram jointly chaired a meeting to review the issues pertaining to the supply of medicine in government hospitals and problems faced by the pharmaceutical companies under the present financial conditions of the country.
Addressing the meeting, Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Care Dr Jamal Nasir said that the pharmaceutical industry was playing an important role in the country’s economy and the Punjab government will properly address its genuine concerns.
He assured that no pharmaceutical company will be blacklisted in Punjab. The minister said that increase in the rate of dollar has raised the cost for import of raw materials used for manufacturing medicines.
Taking these difficulties of the pharmaceutical industry into consideration, the problems of the industry will be presented before the cabinet committee for decision making accordingly.
The minister said that a committee has been constituted for drafting recommendations for presenting before the committee.
Due to increase in prices, we are sitting together to find a solution to this problem,” he added. The said committee will be headed by DG Health Services Dr Ilyas Gondal.
Representatives of pharmaceutical companies have also been included in the said committee.
Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan said that the performance of drug inspectors was also being monitored who carry out inspection of pharmaceutical companies.
A policy will be formulated to conduct such inspections of pharmaceutical companies by duly qualified professionals instead of drug inspectors, he added.
