The Federal Ministry of Regulation and Services has awarded a drug manufacturing licence to a company that caused a disaster last year by supplying substandard tablets to Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore and causing deaths of more than a hundred people, Pakistan Today has learnt. Besides other companies, Alflah Pharmaceutical also used to supply cardiovascular 75 mg tablets Alfagirl (Clopidogirl) to PIC, but its licence was cancelled after the death of more than a hundred patients due to defective medicine supplied to PIC by pharmaceuticals. Interestingly, the said company has been given the licence at a time when deaths due to fake and expired medicine have become routine. The Federal Ministry of Regulation and Services, which has been making headlines for the last many months over many issues, including jacking up drug prices, granted licence to M/s Alflah Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, Lahore in a meeting held on August 31. According to documents available with Pakistan Today, Drug Controller and QA/Member Licensing and Quality Control Dr Abdur Rashid chaired the meeting of the Central Licensing Board and approved the licence of the said company. Last year, a team of Federal Investigation Agency that was probing into the scam, prepared a charge sheet against the company, reportedly stating that Alflah Pharma was found involved in the manufacturing of drugs with an invalid licence. The report further revealed that Alflah’s medicine Alfagril, which was supplied to PIC, had been declared substandard in an analysis conducted by the central drugs testing laboratory in Karachi. Still, the Ministry of Regulation and Services awarded the licence without considering the company’s past record. The sources said senior officials of the ministry received huge kickbacks to authorise the licence. Arshad Farooq Faheem, joint secretary of the ministry who is also the acting CEO of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), neither confirmed nor denied the issue of licence to Alflah. He said, “I have no idea of the issuance of licence you are talking about…however, if Alflah meets set standards, I think there should be no objection.” Insiders said after Alflah had succeeded in getting the licence, a Karachi based company banned after the PIC scam was also trying to get its licence renewed.