His Excellency Dr. Hilal bin Ali Al-Sabti, Minister of Health chaired today (Thursday) the meeting of joint technical committee for governmental medical institutions (civil and military) at the Ministry of Health’s Directorate General of Medical Supplies.

The Committee is concerned with studying and analyzing international tenders from pharmaceutical manufacturers in addition to examining quality reports and the supply chain for these medicines in order to submit recommendations to the National Unified Drug Purchase Committee in the governmental medical institutions (civil and military). The committee proceeds certain principles to purchase and supply medicines by the suppliers while reviewing all useful mechanisms in order to standardize the purchase.

The Minister of Health stressed the necessity of approving the purchase of medicines in accordance with the approved and registered quality requirements by the regulatory authorities after passing out clinical trials to ensure the safety of the medicine.

Al Sabti also encouraged the support of the national manufacturing companies in line with the quality requirements while increasing the participation of government agencies in the national procurement tender, emphasizing that with regard to purchasing of medicines, human safety comes before all other considerations.

The technical committee includes a number of experts and specialists from Ministry of Health, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Medical Services of the Royal Oman Police, Armed Forces Hospital, and Medical Services of Royal Court.

The inclusion of various civil and military institutions in health sector in one committee ensures the availability of medicines and standardizing of treatment protocols, and gives priority to national and local companies as per quality and safety requirements.

One of key objective of Joint Technical Committee for governmental medical institutions is adopting a unified centralization to secure procurement of medicines and medical supplies with a clear and specific drug policy that depends on the international tendering from pharmaceutical manufacturers.