Islamabad:The US has offered to help Pakistan establish a drug regulatory authority to ensure the availability of safe, efficacious and quality medicines.

The offer came during a meeting here Tuesday between visiting US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

At a meeting with Health Minister Sherry Rehman, Leavitt expressed the US' interest in sharing expertise and best practices in the establishment of a drug regulatory authority, Dawn reported Wednesday.

Pakistan's pharmaceutical industry annually exports medicines worth Rs.21 billion, but there is not a single manufacturing unit in the country approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

 

Source : IANS