Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
AT-KABUL: Ministry of Public Health on Sunday inaugurated the National Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority to monitor the quality and the price of medicines in the markets.
Minister Ferozuddin Feroz criticized the low-quality and the high rate of medicine and stressed that 95 percent of medicine is imported from abroad.
He acknowledged that poor quality and high price of medicine in the market has created considerable challenges toward healthcare services in the country.
“Afghanistan annually spends 400 million dollars for importing medicine, and right now more than 1,000 types of unnecessary drugs are sold in the markets and their prices are differently very high in the pharmacies,” Feroz lamented.
He termed smuggling of the medicine with low-quality as another challenge for healthcare services, adding that efforts were going on to pave the ground for production of medicine inside the country.
For resolving the mentioned drug challenges, the Ministry of Public Health established the National Medicine Authority to monitory the low-quality and the high price of medicines in the markets.
Feroz pointed out that the authority would tackle various obligations as to monitor the drug quality in the markets, issue license for pharmacies, surveillance from price and regulating the private sectors for importationsof the medicines.
Head of Advisory Board of National Entrepreneurs Rahmuddin Haji Agha criticized bureaucracy and complicated procedures in the governmental administrations.
“Sometimes the medicines are smuggled through legal ways, but there is no observation it is the responsibility of the relevant authorities to prevent from illegal importations of the drugs,” Agha said.
Afghanistan imports 35 percent medicine from Pakistan, 25 percent from India, 15 percent from Iran and the remains from other countries.
