Lahore: The pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan apparently is still not happy as far as ‘governments support’ is concerned despite the recent hike in prices of almost 94 lifesaving drugs, which sparked much criticism on incumbent government.
The industry stakeholders said that there still exist loopholes when it comes to certain policies, research and infrastructural up gradation of this sector, Express Tribune reported on Friday.
“When it comes to planning, investment, growth, and development with regards to the local pharmaceutical industry, the government does not bother to pay any heed thus making the industry stay far behind from achieving the even minimum the Indian pharmaceutical industry has achieved over the years by the support from its government”, said stakeholders of pharmaceutical industry while talking with group of journalists.
Recently, the government of India has launched new schemes for further growth of its pharmaceutical industry according to which total investment expected is Rs779 billion with total employment generation for 2,55,500 people.
Currently, the growth rate for drugs is 10-12% and for medical devices is 12-15%, while foreign direct investment inflows for drugs stood Rs36.5 billion in 2019-20 against Rs18.42 billion in 2018-19 (total increase of 98%), the said.
Moreover, for the promotion of Bulk Drug Parks they have set few objectives that include easy access to world class common and Research and Development infrastructure facilities at one place with assured land; easy access to testing facilities; and economies of scale, they added.
The benefits they are expecting from the set objectives include: lowers the cost of production; single window for regulatory approvals; and centre of excellence, the stakeholders said.
On the other hand, there are only 3 to 4 units in Pakistan that are producing active pharma ingredients (API), which do not even cater to 1 to 2 percent of the total requirements of this country.
“The rest of all active and inactive material is imported,” said a manufacturer, adding that no single biological product is locally produced and one or two vaccines are filled from imported bulk but there is no manufacturing from grass roots level.
The biological products include all vaccines, Insulin, plasma derived products, recombinant biologicals, cardiac enzymes, equine serum products, monoclonal antibodies, anti retrovirus, etc.
“There is nothing like a medical device industry in Pakistan. There is an industry base in Sialkot producing surgical instruments, but there is nothing that can be classified as high-end invasive products,” said the manufacturer.
He added that the main reason behind this poor condition of the local industry is that the government doesn’t treat the pharmaceuticals as an industry and it rather treats it as philanthropy, which shouldn’t be the case.
“Approximately there are 772 pharma firms in the country but there is still shortage of medicines in the market. It is quite unfortunate on the part of the government to ignore this $3.1 billion industry that produces 80% products locally and employs 150,000 individuals directly, and 300,000 people indirectly,” he added.
Another issue adding to the woes of the industry is that the industry is the most regulated of the national industries yet it faces lack of quality infrastructure and research for which the government has been charging a tax since 1976, he added.
“There is no explanation on the money collected under the Central research Fund (CSR) since 1976. This is why there is not a single FDA approved laboratory in Pakistan, which is the global gold standard in the pharmaceutical industry”.
“Though the industry is one of the top taxpayers in the country, it does not make own molecules. It’s rather an assembly outfit, and there is no R&D at all. Any drug being manufactured in Pakistan cannot be imported,” said the manufacturer.
In Pakistan, he added, there are only two biological dedicated plants – National Institute of Health and DUHS, though the unit at DUHS is not functional at the moment.
Stakeholders suggested that the government should seriously address these issues and must take measures to develop this industry which in turn can benefit the national economy in a far better way.
“We also suggest that commercial aspects of the industry should not be with DRAP or the Ministry of Health, they should move to commerce because DRAP runs on an ad-hoc system and does not make vital decisions,” they added.
