Import of vital medicines from India allowed: Pakistan's drug regulatory authority

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India for their use, a media report said on Friday. The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) said on Thursday that there was no restriction on hospitals or the common man on importing vital medicines (anti-cancer drugs and vaccines) from India for their own use under the Import Policy Order 2022 after obtaining no objection certificate (NOC) from the authority, The News International newspaper reported.

The statement of the DRAP officials came during a session of the Senate Standing Committee on Health when Senator Professor Mehr Taj Roghani raised the issue of the unavailability of several essential medicines in the country amidst a financial crisis. «In view of (the) unavailability of some essential medicines in Pakistan, common people and hospitals can apply for a NOC to directly import medicines from India.

Currently, there is no ban on (the) import of any drug from India under the Import Policy Order 2022,» DRAP officials told the forum. During the session, Senator Roghani said that doctors from Sindh and other provinces had sent her a long list of medicines, including Heparin and other drugs used to treat neurological and psychiatric illnesses, vaccines and other biological products unavailable in Pakistan.

DRAP officials responded that the authority had launched a countrywide survey of unavailable medicines and asked their field force countrywide to report all the essential medicines not available at the healthcare facilities. In its written response to the Senate Standing Committee on Health, the drugs regulatory watchdog said it was working on publishing the list of unavailable medicines with contact details on its official website, which would be updated periodically based on real-time market