Deaths at PIC: one-sided conclusions against manufacturers unjust: former PPMA chief

A number of factors concerning the recent deaths of patients at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore are not being highlighted and a proper and scientific investigation has not been carried out in the matter. This was stated by Dr Shaikh Kaiser Waheed, former Chairman of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) at a press conference in Karachi.
Expressing condolences on behalf of the PPMA for the unfortunate victims of the tragedy, he said that a number of pertinent issues had not been raised in the matter while one-sided conclusions had been reached and consequent action taken against the manufacturers, which was not fair and just.
He said that no one had questioned the competence of the PIC doctors who had failed to notice a similar pattern of symptoms in patients admitted from all over the Punjab and had not taken immediate action. He also asked why anyone had not inquired whether the deaths were a result of drug-to-drug interactions, medicine over-dosage, wrong prescriptions or occurrence of medical complications due to presence of multiple diseases in the patients such as diabetes, arthritis, etc in addition to the existing cardiac condition.
He said that while there are scientifically designed SOPs and protocols to investigate such occurrences, why were pertinent reports not obtained from relevant experts such as pharmacologists, doctors, biologists, epidemiologists, forensic experts, etc before determining the cause of death in each case.
He also said that there was need to investigate what combinations of medicines were given to the patients and how was it that only one medicine was identified as the cause of the deaths and no attention was paid to the overall combination of drugs in the prescriptions?
He raised questions about the storage conditions, which should have been a part of an inquiry to find out if there was any drug contamination and what were the lab findings of patients who used the medicine in question. He said that findings of autopsy/post-mortem reports needed to be revealed and it should be determined whether the drugs in question were tested prior to issuance to patients as per the prescribed purchase procedures. It was also important to find out whether all the patients who died used the medicine in question?
He also pointed out that patients were still dying at the PIC, long after the offending drug had been identified and withdrawn many days back. He said that according to leading foreign experts, while it takes about 3 to six months for any such investigation to be completed, how was is it that in this instance the investigation had been completed in a matter of a few days?
He further emphasised that all manufacturing and quality control procedures in the Pakistani pharma industry were undertaken by highly qualified and trained personnel who were employed under parameters duly approved by the Ministry of Health, with names of these technically qualified people being mentioned in the manufacturing licences as well. This was an important aspect that needed to be taken into consideration in any inquiry relating to the PIC case.
He appealed to the media to report on the matter with caution and in a manner that the people at large did not lose their confidence in drugs and medicines produced by the national pharma industry, which is, in terms of volume, the world's 5th largest pharmaceuticals manufacturing base and annually exports medicines worth Rs 18 billion to more than 50 countries.
The news conference was due to address by Tariq Ikram, Acting Chairman PPMA but he tendered his resignation from PPMA as news conference started by saying that some facts in speech, provided to him, were gone missing due to which former Chairman PPMA Dr Shaikh Kaiser Waheed held a news conference.