PM promises overhaul of medicine approval process

Akash Sama­roo

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says her Gov­ern­ment will move to over­haul the coun­try’s out­dat­ed sys­tem for ap­prov­ing med­ica­tions, ques­tion­ing why drugs al­ready ap­proved by in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised reg­u­la­tors should face lengthy de­lays be­fore reach­ing pa­tients in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar raised the is­sue yes­ter­day while ad­dress­ing new­ly ap­point­ed per­ma­nent sec­re­taries at a spe­cial lun­cheon at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre. She said she had been ex­am­in­ing re­ports of med­ica­tion short­ages and dis­cov­ered that ap­pli­ca­tions to reg­is­ter cheap­er drugs were be­ing held up for as long as a year.