Tyno Syrup case: PPMA announces strike against Punjab government 'unjust' action

Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) has announced complete strike in Punjab with closure of factories and medicine production units due to unfair treatment by Punjab government. The vice-chairman of PPMA Nasir Qureshi told media at a press conference on Thursday that the unfair behaviour and oversight to the facts are affecting the pharmaceutical industry all over the country.
He said that mishandling of Tyno Syrup incident by the Punjab government has forced us to close down our units all over Punjab and stop production of medicines. "We deeply regret the loss of lives in the incident but it would be unfair and unjust to blame the pharmaceutical company," he added.
Qureshi said that according to the forensic report by the Central Drug Laboratory, Tyno Syrup was not the cause of deaths. Also these persons were already drug addicts while there was no problem with the syrup itself but the Punjab government has not made public the forensic reports from the drug laboratories, he said. He demanded that the Punjab government should immediately make these reports public.
Nasir Qureshi stressed that good repute and goodwill is the most important and valuable asset of any medicine manufacturing company and a single false news item affects the whole local industry and our exports get stopped. He requested the media to avoid reporting without knowing all the facts and stressed the need of getting information from technical people instead of non-technical and political figures who don't have complete knowledge of technical matters.
He also urged the government to think about the occurrence of all these incidents in Lahore only, as huge quantities of medicine is being smuggled into the country from neighbouring India but concerned authorities are not paying any heed to it. He stressed the need to improve the working of drug regulatory inspectors ad the market is full of non-registered medicine and the government should take action against spurious drugs' manufacturers and production and sale of non-registered medicines.
"Many pharmaceutical manufacturers have closed down their business and many more are considering closing down, which would render about 4.5 million people jobless and drug manufacturing sector would be eliminated from Pakistan, which should be a point of worry for the country's policy makers", he added. On the occasion, Dr Riaz Ahmed, Chairman Export Committee and former chairman PPMA said that authorities of Punjab government should strictly monitor the sale procedure from the chemist.
Authorities should also check licenses of the chemists and should strictly implement laws of sale with out doctor's prescription. Some lobby is damaging our national pharma industry due to their commission, he said. Chairman North Zone Saleem Iqbal, Amjad Java former PPMA chairman and Managing Director Rekho Pharma Khalid Salim were also present on the occasion.