LAHORE - Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has approved the issuance of licence for clinical trial and bio-equivalence study center to Pakistan Drug Testing and Research Centre (PDTRC) Lahore, a subsidiary of Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company (PIEDMC). PIEDMC Chairman Syed Nabil Hashmi told media here on Sunday that on approval, the PDTRC had increased its efficiency and capacity in testing the quality and effectiveness of medicines. Earlier, various drug tests were being facilitated at PDTRC but now medicines from international and local companies can also be compared and tested. He added that export of medicines would also be significantly increased. He mentioned that approval of federal government to provide bio-equivalence facility in PDTRC was a very important decision as this would enable pharmaceutical companies to get the required facility in PDTRC instead of getting expensive tests from abroad. He said that PDTRC was equipped with modern and international standard facilities due to which it had already got a status of WHO Certified Laboratory. Punjab government had allocated Rs100m in the development programme of the current financial year, adding that machinery required for testing in the lab would be purchased from this grant.