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Year: 2022

National Task Force (NTF) for Eradication of Spurious and Unregistered Therapeutic goods; CEO DRAP Chaired the meeting of NTF Core Team

Asad Ullah Press Releases
National Task Force (NTF) for Eradication of Spurious and Unregistered Therapeutic goods; CEO DRAP Chaired the meeting of NTF Core Team

On 28th September, 2022; The meeting of Core Team of National Task Force for Eradication of Spurious and Unregistered Therapeutic Goods held on 28th September, 2022 at DRAP, HQ Islamabad. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) chaired the meeting of Core Team for the National Task Force in light of the recommendation of Senate’s Standing Committee on Ministry of National Health Service, Regulation & Coordination (M/o NHSR&C) today at the DRAP Head Quarters, Islamabad. The Director of Quality Assurance & Lab Testing, DRAP, Director of Licensing, DRAP and All the Chiefs of Drug Inspectorates from across the Pakistan attended the meeting. The CEO, DRAP emphasized on enhancing the collaboration among federal and provincial inspectorate of drugs for market surveillance, ensuring the availability of life saving medicines and mitigation of shortage of medicines. The CEO, DRAP further added the measures to control overpricing and particularly the products for public health emergencies should be focused upon. Rapid Alert System for immediate eradication of substandard and falsified product posing high level threats and effective recalls of defective therapeutic goods were deliberated upon in details. Finally, the communication mechanism for National Task Force was discussed in detail and agreed upon by the participants. 

World Patient Safety Day: DRAP takes part in global health campaign on Medication Safety; NPC holds a Webinar on” Medication without Harm” on 16th September, 2022

Asad Ullah Events, News & Updates

17th September has been declared as the World Patient Safety Day, to raise awareness about Global Patient Safety Challenges with a specific theme each year. One of the basic component of patient safety is putting an end to avoidable errors within healthcare settings.

WHO has identified “Medication Without Harm” as the theme for 2022 which is the third Global Patient Safety Challenge. This campaign is aimed to propose solutions to remove the obstacles prevalent today to ensure the safety of medication practices. The objective and voice “Medication Without Harm” aims to reduce avoidable medication-related severe harms by 50% globally in the next five years. Over the years, The challenge to ensure patient safety become more complex with new technology, treatments, and medicines being introduced in healthcare systems.

DRAP invites all healthcare professionals to work together to improve patient safety and ensure use of medications without harm

How to Join Our Webinar

The National Pharmacovigilance Centre, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has scheduled an online session on 16th of September, 2022. This session is the part of the our campaign on the World Patient Safety Day 2022 with a focus on theme “Medication Without Harm”.

Topic: Medication without Harm

Date and Time: Friday 16, September, 2022 at 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Join using Microsoft Team

Join a Microsoft Teams Meeting by ID | Microsoft Teams 
Meeting ID: 264 775 816 387 Passcode: J4tvFx

Click to Join

Join virtually using Microsoft team preferably 15 minutes before the start of session. Participants are advised to display their names and organization while joining the session. Please keep your mic and camera off after joining the session. If you wish to ask a question from the presenter, please click the icon to show raise hand, and turn your mic and camera on while asking a question.

-Sessions recordings and Training Materials will be available shortly after the session.

DRAP celebrated World Patient Safety Day 2022

The National Pharmacovigilance Centre, Division of Pharmacy Services, DRAP conducted an online session on the “Medication Without Harm” campaign of the World Patient Safety Day 2022. The target audience were healthcare professionals. The topics of Medication errors in context of healthcare institutes and medication safety & role of DRAP in the perspective of patient safety and pharmacovigilance were focused on in the session. Mst. Saharish Nazar, Agha Khan University Hospital (AKHU) and Mr. Abdul Mateen Focal Person National Pharmacovigilance Centre were the speakers in the session.


Dr. Noor Muhammad Shah, Head of National Pharmacovigilance Centre gave the message that patient safety is a mutual responsibility and presence of a reporting and learning system is essential. Muhammad Asad, Depuy Director Pharmacy Services conveyed the global scenario of harm caused due to medication and the importance of patient safety in provision of healthcare.

The session ended with the expectation of a positive impact on the working and output of pharmacovigilance in the country.

Asim Rauf, CEO DRAP represented Pakistan in the 2nd Meeting of the Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, (OIC)

Asad Ullah Events
Asim Rauf, CEO DRAP represented Pakistan in the 2nd Meeting of the Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, (OIC)

The Second meeting of Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) held on September 05-07, 2022 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Mr. Asim Rauf, CEO DRAP and Dr. Obaidullah, Director, DRAP represented Pakistan in the meeting.

More than 40 member states participated in the meeting and adopted OIC Action Plan to promote collaboration among OIC NMRAs for access to safe, effective and quality medicines and vaccines in OIC Member States, 2022-2024.

The Action Plan includes eight objectives, among others, to strengthen cooperation and networking among NMRAs in OIC Member States, to develop the capacity of human resources and to establish and strengthen regional and sub-regional harmonization and networking among OIC countries.

The Meeting also adopted Istanbul Declaration, which included the recognizing of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

September, 06, 2022: The 2nd Meeting of Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) held on September 05-07, 2022 in Istanbul, Türkiye

Director General, Department of Drug Administration (DDA), Government of Nepal with a delegate visited DRAP HQ to foster mutual cooperation

Asad Ullah Events, Press Releases
Director General, Department of Drug Administration (DDA), Government of Nepal with a delegate visited DRAP HQ to foster mutual cooperation

An official delegate from Department of Drug Administration (DDA), Ministry of Health & Population, Government of Nepal under the leadership of Mr. Bharat Bhattarai, Director General, DDA visited DRAP HQ, Islamabad on Tuesday, August 23, 2022. Mr. Asim Rauf, CEO DRAP warmly welcomed the Mr. Bhattarai and other senior officials from DDA and MoH, Nepal.

Directors of Division of Pharmaceutical Evaluation & Regisatrion (PE&R), Medical Devices and Medicated Cosmetics (MDMC), and Health & OTC Products (H&OTC) demonstrated their respective presentations on the various regulatory functions of DRAP. The delegates shows keen interest in the journey of Pakistan toward successful implementation of WHO/ICH Common Technical Document (CTD) format for registration of pharmaceutical and biological drugs in Pakistan, and praises the IT Systems establish by DRAP for integrated regulatory data management in the country.

The officials of the international Health Partner, United States Pharmacopeia- Prompting Quality of Medicine Plus, from Nepal and Pakistan, were also present in these meetings.

National Pharmacovigilance Cell (NPC), DRAP released draft Guidelines on National Pharmacovigilance System (Edition 02) seeking comments from stakeholders

Asad Ullah News & Updates, Pharmacovigilance

DRAP has established the National Pharmacovigilance Centre (NPC), under the Division of Pharmacy Services, DRAP, Islamabad, to monitor the safety of therapeutic goods across the country. NPC is working with National and International coordination for the development of a functional Pharmacovigilance system in the country. Since 2018, Pakistan is the Full member of the World Health Organization Programme for International Drug Monitoring (WHO-PIDM), Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC), Sweden.

The NPC has developed multi channel reporting system, including electronic and manual reporting forms supported with the guidelines that are available through the official website for stakeholders. With the promulgation of Pharmacovigilance Rules, 2022, it is now the legal obligation of all pharmacovigilance stakeholders to establish their system and report the pharmacovigilance data to NPC.

The 1st Edition of National Pharmacovigilance Guidelines were published in October, 2019. This is the draft for 2nd Edition of National Pharmacovigilance Guidelines, being revised in the light of recently enacted Pharmacovigilance Rules, 2022. This Guidance document is intended to assist all pharmacovigilance stakeholders i.e. Healthcare professionals, Marketing Authorization Holders, Healthcare providing institutes, Patients and caregivers, etc., in playing their roles and responsibilities in the national pharmacovigilance system. The WHO Pharmacovigilance indicators have been incorporated in the chapter 11 of the draft 2nd edition to harmonize the procedure performance evaluation with international standards.

These guidelines are uploaded on the official website of DRAP on 24th of August, 2022 for seeking comments and suggestions from stakeholders on the draft document. Stakeholders can submit their comments and suggestions within 15 days of uploading this document using prescribed format. For further guidelines on how to submit comments visit DRAP website or click here. Comments and suggestions can be forwarded via email to npc∂dra.gov.pk, or can be posted at mailing address, Director, Division of Pharmacy Services, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, 3rd floor TF Complex, 7th Mauve Area, G-9/4, Islamabad.

Please click here to view the draft document National Pharmacovigilance Guidelines 2022