ISLAMABAD: The government should impose a ban on the import of medicines and ask multinational pharmaceutical companies (MPCs) to start manufacturing drugs in the country.
This will not only reduce the import bill of medicines but will also help Pakistan start exporting medicines.
These were the main points of a letter sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Young Pharmacists Association.
The letter stated that in the 1960s the total value of MPCs in Pakistan was $2.8 billion which has now decreased to just 40 million dollars.
The prime minister was informed that 61,256 factories were manufacturing medicines in India.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is not only providing quality medicines in the local market but is also exporting drugs worth $25 billion every year by manufacturing 4,282 brands.
The US is importing more medicines from India than the entire Europe. India only allows MPCs to do business by manufacturing not only formulations but also pharmaceutical ingredients.
Moreover, five per cent revenue of the multinationals are spent on research and development.
The pharmaceutical firms also run welfare, free food, clean drinking water and community education projects in India, the letter added.
It said that Bangladesh was exporting 36 global brands and never granted retail price to MPCs more than its national companies.
About 94 per cent of market share is with the national companies and MPCs are doing only six per cent business.
The multinationals have to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients within the country.
But the situation is totally different in Pakistan where MPCs have never established any factory approved by the food and drug administration of US.
After the ‘60s, they never invested in Pakistan rather sold their factories and took their investment out of Pakistan.
The MPCs also stopped production of active pharmaceutical ingredients i.e. raw materials in Pakistan in the ‘90s.
Today the total value of MPC factories is Rs4 billion, which is equal to about $40 million.
MPCs managed to devise such policies that blocked competition in the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan.
It is nearly impossible for a skilled professional to set up a pharmaceutical factory in Pakistan, added the letter.
Dr Nabeela Latif, the secretary coordination Young Pharmacists Association, said the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan was not manufacturing a single global brand.
“MPCs never built any hospital, college or university in Pakistan. They hardly participated in any community welfare project. They have never spent a single penny on research and development.
“They are just selling medicines on very high prices. This is the reason medicines are being smuggled in from Iran and India,” she said.
Dr Nabeela said India, China and Bangladesh had made friendly laws for local pharmaceutical industry.
“We have appealed to the prime minister to amend the laws and rules in such a way that young pharmacists may start their own factories,” she said.
