ISLAMABAD: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Wednesday suggested raw material import for medicines from China, saying the payments could be made in the Chinese currency under such a mechanism.

Officials in Islamabad have significantly restricted imports of luxury and essential items due to the rapidly depleting forex reserves of the country. The measure has not only slowed down the economy but also led to a shortage of various items, including lifesaving drugs, in local markets.

According to Geo News, Asim Rauf, the chief executive officer of the authority, suggested the idea to improve the availability of necessary medicines in the market amid declining dollar reserves in a meeting with the local pharmaceutical industry.

He mentioned the proposal at a time when commercial banks have stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs), leaving importers struggling to arrange the greenback for already placed orders.

“As the LC issue is hampering the import of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) from China and India,” Rauf said, “the Drug Availability Committee of DRAP has come up with a solution to import the medicines’ raw material from China in its local currency RMB (Yuan) to ensure availability of essential medicines in the country.”

“The pharmaceutical products’ imports from China can further be increased and taken up to 70 to 80 percent,” he continued while pointing out that the mechanism would prevent the country from spending US dollars.

The DRAP chief said he was also working to resolve the LC issue to help the local pharmaceutical industry on the directives of the Prime Minister’s Office while urging the central bank and the finance ministry to look into the authority’s import proposal.