Pharmaceutical manufacturers: Industry aims to increase exports to $5b in 10 years

Seminar speakers underline need of constituting task force.

KARACHI: With an aim to increase annual exports of medicines to $5 billion in 10 years, the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA) has demanded that the government constitute a task force under the chairmanship of the prime minister.

The demand was made at a seminar titled ‘Pharmaceutical export, the next frontier’ organised by the PPMA on Wednesday.

It was attended by pharma industry officials, chief executives of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), secretary of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and other stakeholders.

Participants were informed that the PPMA had adopted “Vision 2025” for the national pharma industry under which it envisioned to increase the current meagre $200 million exports to $5 billion in 10 years.

The task force proposed for the purpose would comprise representatives of the TDAP, DRAP and PPMA. It will hold meetings after every three months for reviewing the work on promoting exports.

Under the same vision, the PPMA plans to establish at least 10 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accredited medicine manufacturing units in Pakistan, whose produce could be exported anywhere in the world. There is no FDA-approved manufacturing unit here while there are many in India and even in Bangladesh.

Under the same regime, the PPMA wants the launch of one-window operations in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad where officials of the TDAP, DRAP and other authorities concerned would issue all documents required for export.

The association also wants resolution of all problems in the issuance of documents required by pharma manufacturers for the export of their produce.

It also demands that the period of one year required for getting the registration for exports should be reduced for facilitation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2015.

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