Current landscape of Pakistan’s pharmaceutical sector is quite the opposite and similar to 2016
KARACHI: Despite being controlled through a strict regulatory regime, Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry remains well below its total production capacity and operational potential. As per its current standing, the pharmaceutical industry continues to fall at an alarming rate, down from 16 per cent to eight per cent per year. With a meagre 0.5 per cent market share in international trade in medicinal and pharmaceutical products, the market size of pharmaceuticals in Pakistan is below $3 billion. Comprising a negligible portion of the country’s exports to the world, pharmaceutical exports from Pakistan constitute less than $100 million per annum in the global market worth $1 trillion.
In the meantime, the pharmaceutical industry in India has emerged as the world’s third-largest producer, mainly by adding contract manufacturing to its production a few decades earlier. Today, the market value of contract manufacturing in India is estimated at 50 per cent of its total domestic pharmaceutical production, which translates into approximately $5.3 billion. Because of its investment-friendly environment and a substantial 40 per cent lower cost of operations and production, leading multinational companies consider India for their outsourcing needs. However, the current landscape of Pakistan’s pharmaceutical sector is quite the opposite and similar to 2016, the outlook of the sector likewise looks bleak in 2017.
Syeda Shajia Raza
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
