Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Punjab Shamail Ahmad Khawaja visited Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL) Lahore and Institute of Public Health (IPH) on Tuesday.
He was accompanied by Vice Chancellor KE Medical University Lahore Prof. Dr. Faisal Masood, Secretary Primary & Secondary Health Ali Jan Khan, Director General Emergency Services Punjab Dr. Rizwan Naseer, Director EPI Dr. Munir Ahmed, DS Health Dr.Yaadullah and others.
Director DTL Lahore Munawar Hayat gave a detailed briefing about the modern facilities available at DTL, Lahore along with shortcomings which could be improved with the collaboration of Turkish Public Health Experts.
The ACS visited all six functional laboratories at DTL which include pure active pharmaceutical ingredients testing laboratory, a high-tech lab having the most modern facilities of HPLC chromatography.
ACS Shamail Ahmad Khawaja termed the drug testing process an essential need to save mankind from substandard drugs.
The Punjab government will take all measures necessary to ensure best manufacturing practices in the pharmaceutical industry, he added.
The delegation was informed that 8,357 drug samples have been received in DTL Lahore from various public sector hospitals’ pharmacies during the current calendar year, out of which 173 samples had been rejected.
The ACS emphasized the need to focus on “over the counter” sale of medicine in thousands of medical stores in every corner of the province.
Prof. Dr. Faisal Masood suggested facilities for accurate testing of biological drugs like interferon, insulin, monoclonal anti-bodies, gamma globulins and other vaccines should also be provided in DTL Lahore with Turkish collaboration.
The ACS disclosed that an MoU to remodel DTL Multan had also been included in the tour agenda of collaboration with the Turkish Health authorities.
The ACS also visited the Institute of Public Health (IPH) Lahore where the Dean IPH Dr. Mrs. Rubina Sarmad gave him a detailed briefing on the performance of IPH and postgraduate courses available at the institute.
After visiting the water testing laboratory and medical entomology & parasitology, the ACS remarked that there was a dire need to transform IPH into a dynamic institution.