ISLAMABAD: Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has framed new rules, barring pharmacies across Pakistan from selling medicines without prescription of a registered medical practitioner . The new rules also make it mandatory for the pharma companies to write down generic name of their products on packing of the medicines to be sold at any medical store across Pakistan.
A formal notification to this effect was issued here on November 17, 2021.
The new DRAP rules, particularly, banning the sale of medicines without prescription of the registered medical practitioner, are extremely important. The implementation of these rules will discourage misuse of drugs, which for decades, has been a serious issue in the society . Likewise , the use of generic name of drugs on their package is very important one. This will help Pakistan get rid of a culture of multinational companies that take advantage of their name and use their influence and money to get registered their medicines in Pakistan at abnormally higher prices and then influence doctors to prescribe their products to the patients to make windfall profit/ margin. In Pakistan, this ugly excercise had been in practice for decades. The nexus of multinational pharmas and money seeking medical practitioners had been fleecing the patients. The multinational pharnas sell their products at much higher rates and the money- lusty medical practitioners work for them as a tool for this dirty business. The medical practioners who get bribe for their cooperation with multinational companies prescribe 10 times costly medicines of multinational companies. Since this nexus had never been checked by any government in Pakistan’s history, the practice of prescribing medicines of multinational companies kept on flourshing in Pakistan.
DRAP has also made it mandatory to ensure physical presence of a qualified pharmacist at each pharmacy/ medical stores.
“There is no doubt that multinational companies use money and other illegal means to allure some doctors to promote their business and I believe DRAP has done a great job by asking all pharma companies to write generic name of medicines not company name on packing”, Noor Mahar, president all lawyers pharmacists association said while talking to NEWSMAN on the issue on Sunday.
A group of multinational pharmas have minted billions of dollars from Pakistan’s medicine matket over the years in connivance with money lusty medical practitioners and now the new DRAP rules are going to put an end to this detesting practice, Noor Mahar added.
