Spokesperson of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) told that Special Advisor to Prime Minister on National Health, Dr. Zafar Mirza stressed on the need of an effective National Medicine Policy for ensuring safe medicines in the country. He said that the Government plans to enhance capacity of pharmaceutical sector for availability of medicines which aims at ensuring quality procedures, effective regulations, promoting rational use and increased access strategies through integrated supply chain mechanisms. He told that it is the vision of the leadership to introduce well framed reforms in health system whose ultimate beneficiaries are people of Pakistan. The first ever National Medicine Policy will be launched in November 2019 for addressing the issues of medicine quality, procurement, pricing and most of all accessibility. Furthermore, pharmaceutical sector will be strengthened to provide a boost to exports of Pharmaceuticals. He was addressing at the closing ceremony on Saturday at 4 day national consultative meeting for development of National Medicine Policy (NMP)-Pakistan held from 09-12 October, 2019. This activity is the part of integrated health system strengthening and services delivery (IHSS-SD). The consultative meeting was attended by experts from DRAP, regulatory affairs, academia, pharmaceutical manufacturers and retailers, international health partners and civil society representatives. The policy addresses the issue of access to essential medicines, regulations for the manufacturing and quality assurance, licensing and sale of medicines and their supply chain management, rational use of medicines, and building of professional capacity of scientists, managers, and healthcare working in this sector. Dr. Zafar Mirza, while explaining the purposes of the policy to this newspaper, said that experts have rightly identified essential principles for strengthening of the system which requires an equally effective implementation plan for transferring benefit of NMP to the patient. Experts in the meeting provided their input and emphasized on the need of self-reliance in pharmaceutical sector keeping in view the already established standards of pharmaceutical sector management. The policy formulation meeting was also attended by Mr. Asim Rauf, CEO, DRAP, Dr. Abdul Latif Sheikh, President, Pakistan Association of Health system Pharmacist, Mr. Ayaz Kiyani, Dr. Sultan Ghani, and CEO's of Provincial Healthcare commissions. Dr. Zafar Mirza appreciated the efforts of all the stakeholders for compiling the draft which lays down the principles for strengthening of Pharmaceutical sector.
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