Over-the-counter sale of drugs to be stopped: Firdous

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Regulation and Services Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said that a comprehensive plan to introduce prescription based mechanism in the country has been devised.

"We do not want to see more Tyno-syruplike deaths. They must stop", said she addressing a press conference here.

She said the over-the-counter sale of drugs n the open market has opened new ways for the addicts.

In this regard, she added, a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Secretary Ministry of Narcotics control and standard operation procedures has been developed for allocation of controlled substances essential for manufacturing medicine.

She stated that they have demanded the data of substances used by the companies during last three years from the pharmaceutical companies and on provision of these documents quota will be decided for the year 2013.

She further stated that to ensure transparency in the process of quota allocation, both the ministers of NR&S and Narcotics Control are not included in the committee and only the secretaries of both the ministries will be part of the body.

The minister said their main concern was to ensure that raw material was used for manufacturing only.

Dr. Firdous said National Narcotics Board is also monitoring quota allocation to the pharmaceutical companies so that no one would face any loss due to delay or scarcity of required components and side by side discouraging factors who want to use these medicine in narcotic mixtures.(APP)