Despite being designated as a priority sector for imports by SBP, the pharmaceutical industry continues to be frustrated by its inability to import raw materials.
Former Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) chairman Mansoor Dilawar stated that the country is currently experiencing shortage of medical products. This has also been confirmed by pharmacists.
Despite being designated as a priority sector for imports by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the pharmaceutical industry continues to be frustrated by its inability to import raw materials because banks are refusing to open letters of credit (LCs) due to a dollar shortage.
“Currently, one out of every four medicines is not available everywhere,” Abdul Khaliq, a medical store owner in Hyderabad, said, “There are many drugs, such as anti-malarial medicines and those used to treat fever, that are unavailable on the market. Many medical products are being sold for double their retail price in the black market.”
According to Umair Hanif, another salesperson at a medical store in Karachi, official prices for many medicines have risen by 5–15%, and many of these are still unavailable on the market.
Meanwhile, Dilawar warned that if the government does not address and resolve the industry’s problems, the situation will worsen. “Medicines for babies, heart diseases, blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy, and asthma are short on the market. “If this situation continues, people may be unable to obtain many essential medicines in February,” Dilawar warned.
He asked the government to set aside nearly $400 million so that the medical industry could continue to import raw materials. He saw this as necessary in order to avert a healthcare crisis in Pakistan.
He also urged the government to allow the industry to raise medicine prices by 38% because the cost components have risen significantly as a result of currency fluctuations and increases in gas and electricity tariffs.
Another former PPMA chairman, Zahid Saeed, claimed in November last year that the industry was on the verge of collapse, claiming that 150 to 200 factories had closed down.
Meanwhile, Ayesha T. Haq, Executive Director of the Pakistan Pharma Bureau, stated in November last year that the number of foreign pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan had decreased from 48 to 22 in about 18 years. The reasons have been the unpredictable, inconsistent, and uncertain policies of successive governments.
Fujifilm Pakistan CEO Syed Haider Ali Naqvi previously stated that the segment in which his company specialises has been unable to open LCs as per its usual banking cycle, and this development might trigger a severe shortage of X-ray, CT, and MRI films for the first time in the country’s history.