The role of Drug Regulatory Authority is not defined Sub standards manufacturers are selling million of tablets of LSDs on lowest tender basis By M Hassan Mahmood Seemal Khalid, Director Marketing at Reko Pharmaceutical was recently interviewed by Dental News as a part of our series of interviews focusing on the quality assurance mechanism in the healthcare sector. The excerpts of the interview are as follows: While talking to Dental News, Seemal Khalid, Director Marketing at Reko Pharmaceutical believes that if the liberal policy of granting licenses to sub-standard drug manufacturers was continued unabated, it would prove disastrous for the industry. The unfortunate incident which recently occurred at Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC) was an isolated incident; hence it was not fair to punish the industry as a whole. The mistakes that occurred were not specific to one department, but these took place due to the oversight of a few individuals. This was not the fault of one specific department, rather an oversight of certain individuals. Moreover, purchase of medicines on lowest price should not be the only criterion for…

Switzerland — World Health Professions Alliance WHPA has consulted experts in health and health communication for a general consultation to move forward the process engaged last year on non-communicable diseases. The consultation, which took place at a workshop in the FDI head office, sought to establish the next step in field testing the WHPA NCD Toolkit and, in particular, the Health Improvement Card. Experts included representatives of FDI's WHPA partners, from several departments of WHO, public health advocacy specialist World Health Communication Associates, as well as the GAVI Alliance, public-private partnership to increase access to immunization in poor countries, and…

DN Monitoring Desk UK — New  guidance aimed at ensuring that advertising by dental professionals is clear and never misleads the public, has been issued by the General Dental Council (GDC) today. The guidance covers all forms of promotion of services by dental professionals in print and on the internet. It also guides dental professionals on appropriate use of specialist titles. Specifically, dental care professionals (DCPs) must not imply they have specialist status by giving themselves a title with 'specialist' in it.

Islamabad — Colgate Week was celebrated recently in Islamabad. A team of dentists including house officers and demonstrators of Islamic International Dental Hospital, under the supervision of Dr Attaullah Khan and Dr Fahad Dogar visited different schools. The motive behind this visit was 'Oral Hygiene Awareness' and for that purpose, free dental checkups and samples were done for the students. This event was sponsored by Colgate Ltd. Meanwhile, IIDH offered free dental checkups to the patients at their OPD the whole week. The patients were guided for oral health and oral hygiene.