President Bidya Devi Bhandari addressing a program in Chitwan. (Photo: RSS)

CHITWAN: President Bidya Devi Bhandari said that people involved in the production of medicines are kind people.

President Bhandari said so during the inauguration of the Nepal Pharma Expo-2022 here on Friday.

Drug production is a benevolent service-oriented business as it is directly linked to the protection of human life, she said, urging drug producers to adhere to international quality and standards.

According to her, the production of drugs has a multidimensional impact, so all parties involved should be serious about the production, marketing and supply of drugs.

“This industry has an important role to play in raising people’s living standards by strengthening public health. If more and more types of medicines are produced in the country, it would help to ensure citizens’ basic rights to health,” President Bhandari observed.

According to her, COVID-19 poses a serious threat to investment, production and supply system of vaccines, medicines and health-related materials. In the current globalized state, only the efforts of a single country are not able to ensure the control and prevention of the pandemic, President Bhandari reminded.

“Therefore, it is time to increase mutual cooperation between countries to deal with the global health crisis,” she said.

The president also highlighted increased investment in drug production, infrastructure development and human health research.

There is an urgent need to distribute medicines and health-related materials equitably, said the president, worrying that the change in lifestyle, the increase in pollution and the insufficiency of healthy food have caused more non-communicable diseases.

Thus, the time has come to also increase investments in pharmacology. Medicine production and the country’s economy have a close relationship.

Therefore, initiatives should be launched to encourage the pharmaceutical industries to make the country self-sufficient in the production and supply of drugs.

The exhibition, which will last three days, has 160 national and international stands.

RSS