Pakistan digitalizes medicine tracking to combat counterfeit drugs
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Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal announced that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has registered over 86,000 medicines under a new Track and Trace System.
This system allows people to use mobile phones to scan products to verify their authenticity and check prices. The minister stated that the DRAP has become fully digitalized, reducing the time for pharmaceutical companies to complete registration from several years to just 21 days.
The minister noted that the cabinet is currently considering a request from pharmaceutical industries to increase medicine prices. This decision faces a dilemma because higher prices could burden ordinary citizens, while keeping prices low might cause shortages of medications for serious illnesses. Currently, some patients are forced to buy drugs from the black market at prices three times higher than the official cost.
Since the shift to a digital system eight months ago, the agency has processed more than 5,000 cases.
