KATHUA: A programme to generate consumer awareness on price monitoring and availability of pharmaceutical drugs was organized today in District Hospital, Kathua by Price Monitoring & Resource Unit, (PMRU) J&K under the supervision of Lotika Khajuria, Drugs & Food Control Organization (DFCO) J&K.
The objective of the programme was to highlight the importance of affordability and availability of safe, quality and efficacious drugs to the end users and to ensure that there is no shortage of life saving/essential medicines in J&K. The programme was attended by various stake holders, general public, representatives from Pharma Associations and Drug regulatory authorities.
Deputy Drugs Controller, Mohd Iqbal Palla was the chief guest of the function. He informed that the primary function of PMRUs is to assist NPPA in monitoring the prices of drugs, ensuring availability of drugs and raising consumer awareness. He said that PMRUs act as collaborating partners of NPPA with information gathering mechanisms at the grass-roots level to ensure seamless availability of all essential medicines and report the violations on notified prices of scheduled and non-scheduled formulation to NPPA through State Drugs Controller.
Rajesh Anguralla, DDC(ILC) added that PMRU can play an important role in the healthcare system as our BPL population can get benefitted if drug molecules are prescribed in generic names only while Archana Mujoo, ADC (HQ) Jammu sought active co-operation of all stakeholders for bringing effective changes in the pricing scenario of drug molecules.
Hina Hamid gave a detailed overview of the activities undertaken by PRMU of the UT. She explained the activities undertaken by NPPA and PMRU. She sought the coordination of stake holders required to expose incidents of overcharging by pharma companies for initiating action by NPPA.
The participants from trade shared their practical experience with the stakeholders. They unanimously advocated for effective surveillance over drug molecules which are not uniformly priced but have a broader relevance.
Pankaj Malhotra, Assistant Controller Drugs, (ILC) Jammu presented vote of thanks to the participants.
