Two-day 16th Pak Pharma & Healthcare Exhibition & Conference kicks off with the participation of more than 400 stalls and 100 foreign and local exhibitors.
LAHORE – Punjab Governor Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman on Wednesday said that he would summon the Punjab Assembly session upon receiving requisition.
He said the session of the Punjab Assembly should be held in few days to form new government.
Talking to media after inaugurating the two-day Pak Pharma and Healthcare Expo at the Lahore’s Expo Centre, the governor said they are thankful to Allah Almighty for providing them another opportunity to serve the masses.
The two-day 16th Pak Pharma & Healthcare Exhibition & Conference (PPE) kicked off with the participation of more than 400 stalls and 100 foreign and local exhibitors.
The mega event is being organised by Prime Event Management with the support of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA).
“We have done constitutional work in the previous governments too and we will continue to do it again,” he said.
Governor Baligh Ur Rehman said the new government must see the initiative of the caretaker government to deregulate the prices of medicines and that regulation should not be so much tight that the pharmaceutical companies start thinking to leaving the industry. And any regulation should also not be so weak that the companies start exploiting the masses, the governor said, adding patients should not be exploited under any circumstances.
He recalled that during the tenure of PML-N government in 2013-18, the prime minister had rejected such summaries of increase in the prices of medicines.
The governor lauded the efforts of Prime Event Management and the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) for organising a successful expo.
He was of the view that it’s good that raw materials are being produced in Pakistan too, saying there is still room for technology and exports in the pharma sector.
Earlier, the governor visited various stalls and interacted with the representatives of local and foreign companies.
PPMA Chairman Mian Misbah Ur Rehman told media that Pakistan was the only country where the government is still fixing prices of medicines and drugs and now the government’s permission to the pharmaceutical companies to fix prices except life-saving drugs would follow the World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
He said that the prices of more than 450 medicines, which do not fall in the ambit of the essential drugs list of the WHO, are being determined by the government bodies.
He said the Indian government regulates prices of only 360 medicines.
Talking to media, organizer Kamran Abbasi said that the exhibition is exclusively focused on the Pharmaceutical Equipment Manufacturers, Laboratory Equipment, Research and Testing Laboratories, Raw and Packaging supplier, Pharma Printing, Pharma Chemicals, Lab chemicals and Pharma Instruments, Hospital & Health Equipment Manufacturers, Ultra Sound, X-Ray, MRI Machines Cardiac Monitors, Medicines manufacture, surgical equipment, Hospital Consumables and accessories.
A conference was also held concurrently.
