PR No. 156 CEO DRAP STRESSED ON THE NEED OF HARMONIZATION OF STANDARDS ON REGULATIONS OF MEDICINES AND VACCINES AMONG REGULATORY AUTHORITIES OF OIC COUNTRIES. Islamabad: November 28, 2018

Chief Executive Officer, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Dr. Sheikh Akhter Hussain represented Pakistan in the 1st meeting of Heads of National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries at Jakarta, Republic of Indonesia. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen the collaboration amongst the OIC NMRAs towards self-reliance of medicines and vaccines. Different OIC Member States presented their current status with regards to capacity and self-reliance in medicines and vaccines. The meeting aimed at ensuring extended cooperation mechanisms among the regulatory authorities for capacity building, combatting substandard and falsified medicines, irrational medicine use, provision of halal medicines, cooperation in pharmaceuticals regulatory policies and practices and promoting national medicine regulatory strategy for progressively achieving the highest attainable standard of health. In separate meetings with Heads and delegates from various NMRAs of OIC Member States, Dr. Sheikh Akhter Hussain stressed on the need of harmonization of standards on regulations of medicines and vaccines among regulatory authorities of OIC countries. The meeting was of great importance as “The 2017 Secretary-General’s Report presented to the Sixth Islamic Conference of Health Ministers, held on 5 – 7 December 2017” emphasized among others the commitment of the OIC General Secretariat and relevant OIC institutions to carry out efforts for the promotion of self-reliance in the production and supply of vaccines and medicines in the OIC member states in order to improve access to essential medicine, including vaccines, especially in those OIC countries which are still lacking the necessary resources to do so. Dr. Sheikh Akhter Hussain informed the other participants that DRAP is already working for international harmonization and aims to achieve maturity level 3 in WHO Global Benchmarking. In this regards, DRAP has initiated process of establishing good practices by ensuring quality standards of management and updating itself in line with international best practices. Complete automation of Licensing, Registration, Inspection and Pharmacovigilance function is one of the objectives for DRAP to achieve its strategic target to be recognized as modern day regulatory authority. The mandate of DRAP ensures availability of quality assured, safe and efficacious medicine in the country and various steps have been taken in this context to further improve the institutions functionality.

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