Pak Province may Lift Ban on New Drug Stores and also Revise Licensing Rules to Combat Fake Drugs

Sindh, a province of Pakistan, may lift the ban on new drug stores and put in place revised licensing rules to combat fake drugs.

Special secretary of the provincial Health department, Dr Shafqat H. Abbasi, told Dawn newspaper that his department was actively considering withdrawing the ban notification of last year.

Licensing of new medical stores could be resumed, but strictly in line with the guidelines and directives of the Supreme Court, he said.

“In future, new medical stores will be required to furnish documents showing that they employed a bachelor of pharmacy at the store, while the already existing licensed stores will be given a six-month relaxation, as is permissible under the Sindh Drug Rules,” Dr Abbasi said.

In a suo motu action on the spurious drugs business in the country, the Supreme Court had asked the Health ministry to check the prevalence of spurious drugs, ensuring implementation of the drug laws in the provinces besides the presence of a qualifed pharmacist at every drug store.

The court did not ask to stop giving licences, but had directed that new drug sale licences should be issued to those establishments which had registered pharmacists since a sufficient number of graduate pharmacists was available.

The Supreme Court’s guidelines had also called for computerization of all data relating to drug stores or pharmacies both at the provincial level and the federal level in order to ensure that no pharmacist is cited as being in charge of more than one medical store.