Dubai: A total of 69 new drugs have been approved and registered in the Ministry of Health and Prevention.

After meeting all necessary safety standards and requirements, the medicines were approved and registered by the ministry’s Supreme Committee for Drug Registration during a meeting chaired by Dr Ameen Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the UAE Ministry of Health’s Public Health Policy and Licensing and vice-president of the Drug Pricing and Registration Higher Committee.

During the meeting, the committee postponed the registration of 11 drugs due to safety issues while another four were rejected for non-conformity with quality standards.

The approved medicines include drugs for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), gynaecological diseases and four other biological drugs as well as drugs for diseases like blood cancer.

The committee also approved a new drug for the treatment of three types of blood cancer, especially chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Al Amiri stressed that the ministry only approves and registers drugs that are manufactured by accredited pharmaceutical companies that meet all international standards and requirements.

He added that the ministry is going to organise inspection tours for local, Gulf and international pharmaceutical companies to ensure their conformity to international safety standards, requirements and instructions issued by the World Health Organisation and international authorities like the FDA and the European Medicines Agency.

He said that the committee has approved 11 pharmaceutical factories and delayed the approval of five others operating in Greece, Turkey and India, while two factories of an Indian company were suspended for non-conformity with international standards.

The committee also discussed the prices of 132 drugs and approved the re-pricing of another 14 drugs that consider patients’ rights to obtain secure, inexpensive and useful medicines, Al Amiri pointed out.