In its first meeting, the Senate National Health Committee visited the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Laboratory in Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, on Wednesday. There, the staff provided a briefing on the many budgetary issues surrounding the modernization of labs.
The officials briefed the audience on how difficult it was for the National Control Laboratory for Biologics (NCLB) to secure funding to upgrade its operations and infrastructure as a result of numerous government limitations.
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According to the CEO of DRAP, Asim Rauf, 60 million rupees in cash went unused for a year because of legislative restrictions that required them to be used solely for central research.
A summary is awaiting approval, according to the Special Secretary of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination, who stated that improvements had been made to the fund-utilization mechanism.
The absence of the generator owing to a power loss, which is having the unfavourable effect of causing medication and vaccinations to develop poisonous and become unusable due to temperature changes, caused major worries by the committee.
In order to handle the issue of generators and wirings, the CEO DRAP informed the committee that a wiring of 400 KVA was necessary. The policy board had fallen asleep due to such neglect, the committee noted when it was asked about the makeup and operation of the policy board, and it was declared a criminal offence.
The committee instructed the ministry to immediately call a meeting of the policy board, make a decisive decision regarding the resolution of the power outage issue, purchase of generators within 7 days, and submit a report on a priority basis. To immediately stop the area’s power outages, Senator Asad Ali Khan Junejo suggested speaking with the Ministry of Power.
Senator Junejo also requested records of the immunisations that were thrown away after they lost effectiveness owing to temperature fluctuations.
DRAP assured the Committee that the vaccinations kept here are purely for testing purposes and are not given to actual patients.
The DRAP official was asked about the method for monitoring the temperature and what steps are taken if it drops, but she was unable to respond. The committee expressed grave worries about the DRAP’s operation and regretted what might happen in the future if such carelessness persists.
The NCLB officials informed the audience that DRAP had improved its testing capabilities, adding animal testing for general safety tests, bacterial endotoxin testing by LAL method, Gel Electrophoresis (Agarose) for identification, a specific counter for visible and sub-visible particle count for clarity and adulteration, osmolality test, PH testing, and ELISA for potency and identification test.
