The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Association (PPMA) has divided over the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) catastrophe as several PPMA members expressed disappointment over poor performance of the PPMA leadership in a meeting on Saturday.
Sources privy in the meeting disclosed that it happened for first time that the majority of PPMA members showed their concerns on the role of the association in the PIC debacle. A few members pointed out that the PPMA office-bearers, in both north and south zones, were so incompetent that they could not hold a single meeting with the provincial governments over the issue. They could not even approach the Punjab Parliamentary Health Secretary Dr Syed Elahi, when everybody was raising the question about quality of locally manufactured medicines.
In the meeting, sources revealed, it had been decided that the PPMA members would do their individual efforts to restore the public confidence in locally manufactured drugs as the current leadership had failed in protecting the pharmaceutical industry’s interests.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer on the condition of anonymity said that the current PPMA leadership had virtually no stake in the pharmaceutical industry and medicine exports. The PPMA leadership toyed with the medicine reaction issue, which had not only jeopardised $ 260 million medicine exports but also threatened the existence of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, he maintained.
He warned both the government and the PPMA leadership that if the domestic pharmaceutical industry was pushed against the wall, the country would face another drugs crisis. “It is the domestic industry that is producing quality medicines at affordable prices in the country. One unfortunate incident should not overshadow all the good work done by the local industry,” he underlined.
Answering a question, he agreed that Efroz, the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the killer drug had showed great negligence, but it should not be ignored that Efroz was the first company that started the export of medicines from Pakistan, he stressed.
He said that the pharmaceutical industry was one of the most forward looking industries in the country. At the time of independence, there was hardly any pharmaceutical industry in the country but today around 600 domestic and 25 multinational pharmaceutical manufacturing units were operating in the country. The domestic industry was catering to nearly 70 percent of the country’s demand of finished medicines, he maintained.
Criticising the government’s role, he said, “Both the local and multinational pharmaceutical companies were asking the government to constitute a Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) at the federal level to avoid such unfortunate incidents. But the government was not paying heed to the seriousness of the issue.”
“The government itself is playing with the lives of the common man as it has given the charge of drugs regulations to the federal cabinet secretary, in addition to her existing responsibilities,” he added.
