Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday suspended the director general of the Centre for Applied Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, and appointed a commission to investigate his allegedly illegal appointment and impediments by authorities in giving approval for the sale of cheap interferon injections for treatment of hepatitis C.
Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan directed the commission to submit a report in 10 days and adjourned the hearing until June 23.
The Punjab University registrar informed the court that the CAMB, a federal government institution, was established on land owned by the PU. They had written to the government to have the building vacated.
Dr Riazuddin Sheikh, the person who invented the injection, appeared in court and said he had prepared 100,000 interferon injections to cure hepatitis C. He said the injections were to be made available in the market for Rs70 per injection. “But some elements in the PU, the federal government and injection importers have created hurdles in taking the injection to the market,” Sheikh said.
Professor Zahid Mahmood had filed the petition saying that Dr Sheikh had prepared an inexpensive injection of interferon. He claimed that a mafia of multinational pharmaceutical companies and the Ministry of Science and Technology had tried to create impediments in the way of sale of the injection in the market.
In another petition, Dr Usman Zafar challenged the appointment of the present CAMB director general saying that the authorities had removed him (Dr Zafar) as head of CAMB and replaced him “in an illegal move to ruin the institution”.
The counsel for Dr Usman said that Dr Sheikh had discovered an active ingredient in the injection used to cure the disease and had produced a cheap version of it.
The injection presently sold in the market cost Rs4,500, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2014.