'Not a single penny invested in pharma sector for last two years'

Despite the findings of independent international consultants that pharmaceuticals are a 'sunrise industry' with 'tremendous growth potential', not a single penny has been invested in this sector for the last two years and overall investments have stopped due to inefficiency of the drug regulatory agency and the ministry, a top official of a multi-national pharmaceutical company, requesting anonymity, told Business Recorder here on Monday.
"One makes many compromises in life but one should never compromise with one's life and that's what is happening now," he said, adding "we are committed to produce quality products under good manufacturing practices, but quality is always cost based and while the cost of doing business is continuously increasing in Pakistan the price of medicines have remained the same since 2001. In many cases it costs more to produce the medicines and as a result many products are vanishing from the shelves."
This was in turn taking heavy toll on the multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in Pakistan as they were finding it extremely difficult to maintain their world-class standards of their drugs and remain financially viable, he said. After the devolution, health department was being run under a constitutional provision on the request from all the four provinces. And before the establishment of an independent body, the department faced strong interference of the then-cabinet division secretary who used to run this body as a sub-office of her ministry, it is widely known.
This trend continued and now the ministry's interference is continuously affecting Authority's performance due to which almost all major issues including the demand for a reasonable price adjustment are still pending. "Even the most important issue of registering over 14,000 drugs is still pending and nobody in the Authority is bothered to resolve this issue which is badly affecting the performance of entire industry," the official said.
Pharma industry of the country was already faced with various problems including power shortage, poor law and order, and increasing cost of doing business, and on top, the non-serious approach of the Authority had added to the woes of the pharmaceutical sector, he said.
The official said: "All our expansion plans and registration of new drugs are in doldrums due to this issue, as the regulators' indifferent attitude is discouraging pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan any new investment here in Pakistan." He said it was the need of the time that the government intervene on urgent basis in the matters of the Authority to restore the confidence of potential investors. "The government should take steps to resolve the problems on top priority. "New plants mean more jobs," he added.