National Assembly Sub-committee Formed To Evaluate DRAP Performance

The National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Service, Regulations and Coordination on Wednesday formed a sub-committee to evaluate the performance of the Drug Regular Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to ensure the provision of standard and quality medicines to the general public

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Nov, 2022 ) :The National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Service, Regulations and Coordination on Wednesday formed a sub-committee to evaluate the performance of the Drug Regular Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to ensure the provision of standard and quality medicines to the general public.

Chairing the sub-committee meeting, PML-N lawmaker Dr. Nisar Ahmed Cheema said that in the previous three years, innovative steps have been taken for the betterment of DRAP and to further improve the performance of the authority.

"After assuming charge by Asim Rauf as chief executive officer (CEO) of DRAP, a marked improvement, and valuable changes have been observed in the performance and working of the DRAP. I really appreciate the way the CEO DRAP has been working," Nisar Cheema added.

DRAP officials briefed the sub-committee regarding DRAP''s e-governance and its performance.

Later talking to the media, CEO DRAP Asim Rauf said that the authority was mandated to effective coordination and enforcement of the Drugs Act, 1976 to regulate the manufacture, import, export, storage, distribution, and sale of therapeutic goods in the country.

He said that in the year 2019, DRAP started digitally transferring manual data from the past 10 years containing 4.2 million files and now it was the first public-sector organization to have the capacity to perform duties from anywhere in the world.

"The digitalization will help save millions of Dollars to the stakeholders as well as speeding up all the processes from registration to licensing", Asim Rauf added.

Chairman of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) Arshad Mehmood (North) announced that PPMA will give the drugs at a 50 percent discount to the public health sector and hospitals.

Dr Nisar Ahmed acknowledged the announcement of PPMA and appreciated them for the provision of relief to the public health sector hospitals.