March 29, 2017
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said, support of the government can help pharmaceutical sector to boost exports and attract foreign investment.
Pakistan has a vibrant pharmaceutical sector with six hundred and fifty companies and local sales of over three billion dollars per annum but its exports stand at only two hundred billion dollars while Indian pharma exports are over thirteen billion dollars.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that, sale of locally produced pharmaceutical products is expected to surpass four billion dollars within a year but there is no hope for enhanced exports which should be tackled.
He further said, Pakistan has no company approved by the Food and Drug Administration of US while the number of such companies in India is over 500 and there are four FDA approved companies sin Bangladesh.
Pakistani pharma products cannot be exported to US unless the same are approved by the FDA, he added.
The business leader said that the number of multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in Pakistan has come down from thirty six to sixteen due to pricing issues which must be resolved.
The share of local companies has jumped to 66 percent in the local market while the share of multinationals has been reduced to 34 percent but the share of Pakistan in over one trillion dollar global pharma trade is meaningless.
Government and private sector should collaboratively try to improve the competitiveness of local pharma industry, he said.
