LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to immediately purchase peginterferon injections at a cost of Rs180 million and new medicine sofosbuvir tablets worth Rs420m for the treatment of hepatitis C patients.

This was shared at a meeting of steering and technical committee on Tuesday.

The committee was constituted for treatment and eradication of hepatitis.

Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Health Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah, Adviser to chief ministeron health Khwaja Salman Rafique, Special Secretary Secondary & Primary Healthcare Ali Jan Khan, Director General Health Dr Amjad Shehzad, Additional Secretary Salman Ghani, Principal Gujranwala Medical College Prof. Mohsin Af tab, Additional Secretary Technical Dr. Salman Shahid, IPH Dean Prof. Moaz Ahmed, and Provincial Hepatitis Control Programme In-charge Dr. Sabeen attended the meeting.

Mr Najam Shah directed the officials to complete pre-qualification of firms and other formalities for purchasing sofosbuvir tablets for the treatment of patients of hepatitis C and run advertisements in newspapers within 15 days so that all process could be completed transparently.

The meeting was informed that an amount of Rs600m had been approved to procure the hepatitis C drugs.

The experts of the technical commit-tee recommended purchase of sofosbuvir tablets with 70 per cent amount and peginterferon injections with the remaining sum.

Dr Sabeen told the meeting that the health department had already provided peginterferon injections to all districts of the province for the treatment of 34,500 hepatitis C patients.

PHARMACISTS: The Young Pharmacists Association has demanded registration of locally manufactured drugs to enable the poor to get low-cost treatment for hepatitis C.

Addressing a news conference at the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday, YPA Vice President Dr Muhammad Ahmed said the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan was not issuing registration letters for manufacturing low-cost tablets for hepatitis patients.

YPA senior office-bearers, includingDr Hina Shaukat and Dr Haroon Yousaf, were also present on the occasion besides Pakistan Pharmacists Association representative Noor Muhammad Mehar.

A number of hepatitis C patients also attended the conference to put pressure on the government to talce steps for the purpose.

Dr Ahmed said a company -Everest Pharmaceuticals -had given rate of Rs46 per tablet of Daclatasvir, Rs116 of Sofosbuyir, Rs498 of Sofosbuyir+Ledipasvir and Rs92 of Simeprevir. He said the DRAP registration board after discussion in its meeting registered these medicines against the above-mentioned prices.

However, the company was waiting for issuance of letter to start production of the drugs.

`The Ministry of National HealthServices and DRAP are not only delaying registration letters of all the four medicines but also pressurising the company to withdraw applications in order to facilitate a firm of their choice,` he alleged.

He said three renowned medical professionals of the two countries had carried out trials of these medicines on patients declaring them effective in treating hepatitis disease.

The doctors included Prof Zafar Iqbal, ex-chairman/dean of Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, Prof Aftab Mohsin, principal of Gujranwala Medical College and Dr Sanjiv Saigal, director Transplant Hepatology, the Medicity, Delhi.The YPA has appealed to the prime minister to intervene and direct the DRAP to issue registration letters in the best interest of hepatitis patients.