Senate body expresses displeasure over DRAP performance, seeks report on stent pricing   

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination which was chaired by Senator Sajjad Turi Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and sought detailed report on stent pricing.

The chairman of the committee said that the DRAP was not fulfilling its responsibilities properly and unable to provide relief to the country’s people.

He said that the DRAP could not properly execute its recently introduced bar-code system.       Some members of the committee were of view that stent prices were higher in Pakistan as compared to other neighbouring countries.

They said that the DRAP was not taking effective measures to improve the standard of available medicines in open market.

CEO DRAP, Dr Aslam Afghani briefed the committee on stent pricing and medical devices.    He said that several pharmaceutical companies had got stay-orders on bar-coding.

The committee also received briefing from the district administration of Islamabad on quality of food items in the federal capital.      The committee was informed that there was no regular food authority in the federal capital.

The representatives of district administration informed the committee that there was no proper mechanism to check the quality of meat and that the administration had no equipment to check the meat.

They said that the concerned officials manually checked the meat quality however the administration conducts genetic tests for meat identification.

They said that such test was very expensive while the administration has limited resources.

They said that the matter of establishing new slaughter houses was still pending since long. Members of the committee said that the fish, vegetables and other food items being sold in the markets of federal capital were substandard while many shopkeepers sold freezed items.

The chairman committee said that establishing food authority was essential to manage all food related issues in the federal capital. He questioned why the PMDC Bill was not being passed from the parliament.

The committee also received briefing on National TB control programme and expressed displeasure over its performance and sought detailed report on the programme.