LAHORE: The pharmaceutical industry is worth $2.3 billion and around 600 registered companies are related to this industry, having around $20 million export, which – according to experts – can be increased to $10 billion. But the industry biggest has been suffering from damages due to drug pricing policy, which is still the biggest problem of the industry and still is disputed.
According to pharmaceutical sector claims, the prices of in Pakistani pharma products are the lowest in the region and the sector is the second largest contributor to the national exchequer following textiles.
Pharma Bureau Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Novartis Pakistan Shahab Rizvi has claimed that the pharmaceutical industry could grow five-fold in just five years, if the government accepts stakeholders’ recommendations in pricing policy. He said that due to government’s encouragement, the Indian pharma industry currently stands at $21 billion and is expected to cross $45 billion by 2020.
Pakistan is manufacturing 80% of the country’s medicine requirements, out of which multinationals account for 44%.
The major concern of the pharma sector is the frozen prices since 2001, in exceptional cases a few commercially unviable products received a nominal price adjustment, and this has affected the profitability of the companies.
According to experts, the current draft of the drug pricing policy may discourage investments into quality manufacturing, which envisages a rollback of 15% interim relief granted 12 years ago at 1.25% per year, and a further price cut of 30%, against the government’s calculation of 94% price increase.
