KARACHI: Pakistan’s leading pharmaceutical company, Getz Pharma donated 15000 testing kits as well as 1.9 million tablets of Hydroxychloroquine to the Sindh government to help in its fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. Hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ 200 is an anti-malarial drug shown to be effective against the Coronavirus. Getz Pharma is among a handful of companies that manufactures the drug.
The company also donated 1500 units of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for doctors and healthcare workers, which have been dispatched to more than 50 hospitals, isolation wards, quarantine centers and clinics in Sindh, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, and Larkana. The move was taken to ensure the safety of health care professionals in the front-line battling the deadly pandemic.
Sindh Health Minister Dr AzraPechuho received the donation from Getz Pharma CEO Mr. Khalid Mahmood at her office in the Sindh Health Ministry. Mr. Mahmood assured Dr Pechuho of his company’s continued support to the Sindh Government and underlined the importance of Public-Private partnerships during the crisis. Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister, Senator Murtaza Wahab expressed his “heartfelt appreciation and gratitude” for the donation by Getz Pharma.
In recent days the Sindh government has expressed its frustration at not being able to import testing kits as the federal government refused to allow cargo flights for this purpose.PPP senator Sherry Rehman has also warned about a serious crisis in the absence of testing kits and said that Sindh did not receive any functional testing kits despite the announcements made by the federal government.
