The Ministry of Science and Technology implicated the approver former Director General Health Rasheed Juma in ephedrine case, for putting ban on locally manufactured low-cost hepatitis medicine 'interferon'. Chairing the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on Tuesday, Yasmeen Rehman laid down a report of FIA on 'interferon'.
The FIA report concludes that there is absolutely no evidence of embezzlement of funds and no evidence of personal use of government funds for personal gains. "Therefore, this report recommends to close down the inquiry," the document read. It has also exonerated microbiologist Dr Sheikh Riazuddin the pioneer of indigenously produced 'interferon' and recommended to remove his name from ECL.
The PAC has further constituted a three-member committee headed by Member Planning Commission, Dr Samar Mubarak which will look into the ways to re-launch the local manufacturing of low-cost hepatitis medicine 'interferon' and present its recommendations within 15 days.
The federal government has banned locally manufactured 'interferon' from reaching the market, allegedly on the influence of multinational pharmaceutical firms, the report reveals. The other members of the committee included Secretary Science and Technology Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar and Executive Director Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Sohail H Naqvi.
The PAC also referred the case to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further probe as to who else were instrumental in managing the provision of low-cost hepatitis medicine, which is banned. A letter was also written to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in this respect. Dr Samar Mubarak and Dr Sheikh Riazuddin were also invited to the meeting of the committee.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, instead of encouraging microbiologist Dr Sheikh Riazuddin in manufacturing low-cost drug, initiated an inquiry against him through the FIA. Dr Riazuddin, the former director of the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) of the Centre of Applied Molecular Biology (CAMB), had developed the low-cost 'interferon' injection used for curing hepatitis C and proposed to sell it for Rs 70 per injection - almost 100 percent below the prevailing market price.
Dr Riazuddin informed the committee that the health ministry had not only approved the 'interferon' produced by the CEMB, but also sanctioned funds for the purpose. The product was even validated by German laboratories. The research work was undertaken six years ago at the CEMB of the CAMB and the Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC).
In the phase-I trial, 10 volunteer medical students were injected the drug without any serious adverse effect; however, permission for the clinical trial has been pending with the health ministry for about three years, he added. Dr Riazuddin had proposed to sell the products to the general public at throwaway prices. This, however, was obviously not acceptable to the multinational pharmaceutical laboratories and their supporters in the government, as evident from a letter issued to the Secretary Ministry of Health from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the report said.
The FIA report recommends to initiate a separate enquiry into the loss of 100,000 'interferon' injections worth of Rs 7 million, as well as wastage of raw material relating to 'interferon' worth of Rs 1 million. The locally-produced 'interferon' injections are low-cost, with one of these costing between Rs 70 to Rs 100 compared to Rs 250 to Rs 900 for an imported injection.
Responding to a question, Dr Riaz said an estimated Rs 4 billion worth of 'interferon' is imported each year. The major stakeholders include GTZ and Ferozsons companies. Yasmeen Rehman said Irfan Nadeem, former Secretary Science and Technology misguided the NA Standing Committee on Health and tried to influence the inquiry conducted by the FIA. The committee commented that he had his vested interests to put ban on the drug coming to the market.
Secretary Science and Technology contested the argument of parliamentarians and claimed that it was not Irfan Nadeem but Rasheed Juma who did not allow to market the product and the ministry should not be blamed in this respect. The committee was reviewing the audit paras of Ministry of Science and Technology for year 2004-05 and 2005-06.