DRAP fully digitalised, 86,000 medicines registered, says Kamal

Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal has said the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is now fully digitalised, with more than 86,000 medicines registered under its Track and Trace System so that a buyer can scan a packet with a mobile phone to check the product's authenticity and its price.

He was speaking at the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) in Karachi, Business Recorder reported. Companies can also register medicines and other products online, a process that once took years and is now completed in 21 days, he said.

Eight months have passed since DRAP's certification procedures were moved to a digital system, and more than 5,000 cases have been processed in that period, the minister said. The prime minister gave DRAP an award for the performance, he said.

On pricing, Kamal said the pharmaceutical industry is seeking an increase and the matter has been before the federal cabinet, according to Business Recorder. He described two competing concerns: higher prices would add to the burden on ordinary households, while holding prices flat could cause shortages of medicines for serious illnesses. Patients then buy the same medicine on the black market at up to three times its rate, he said.

Kamal suggested the government step back from direct price regulation and let the open market set medicine prices, as it does for other goods.

KATI President Sheikh Umer Rehan asked that all federal ministers visit Karachi at least once a month, following the example of the FBR chairman, to hear stakeholders in their sectors. He said Pakistan's cost of production is among the highest in the region and that a further increase in the interest rate had added to the difficulties facing industry.

Rehan said the Korangi Industrial Area holds a large share of the country's pharmaceutical industry and plays an important role in the sector. He welcomed the digitalisation of DRAP, saying it had substantially reduced the industry's difficulties, and said the business community expects Kamal, who represents Karachi at the federal level, to raise the city's problems with the federal government.