It seems that the domestic Pharma Market of Pakistan have not developed that much. With a population of over 170 million peoples, we may expect the domestic establishment to fulfill the basic medicinal needs. There a few good domestic organizations in pakistan Viz. Ferozsons Laboratories, Getz Pharma, Herbion, Remington Pharmaceuticals Barrett Hodgson Pakistan, Zahoor Pharmaceutical Industry PVT LTD, Bosch Pharmaceuticals, Nucleus Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Limited, Shaf Pharma, Macter International Limited.
Lets see what are problems associated with this South Asia Country.
Intellectual property rights (IPR) continue to be a major concern amid patent issues and the prevalence of counterfeit drugs. Despite being a signatory to the WTO TRIPS agreement, Pakistan’s IPR protection for pharmaceuticals is very weak. Pakistan remains on the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) Priority Watch List in 2011. The USTR stated that Pakistan needs to improve the protection against unfair commercial use of pharmaceutical test data, and should establish an effective system to address the patent issues of pharmaceutical products. The Pakistan Medical Association alleges that nearly half of drugs available in the country are counterfeit and that the population spends around three-quarters of their household health budget on drugs, half of which may be fake or unfit for human consumption.
Pakistan’s pharmaceutical market is small and equally split between multinational and domestic companies. Espicom projects the market to grow at a fairly high single-digit CAGR in dollar terms during the forecast period. By 2016, it will be the 11th largest pharmaceutical market in the Asia Pacific region covered by Espicom. The pharmaceutical market in Pakistan is dominated by locally manufactured pharmaceuticals, predominantly generic drugs, which meet around 90% of country’s needs in 2011. Imported retail medicaments account for the remainder of the market, although manufacturers rely heavily on imported raw materials for production. Multinational companies account for around half of the market by value, although local producers have a far greater share in terms of volume.
As far as my reading regarding the buisness development arena, Pakistan Pharma Industry has a growth rate of 9.5%, reasons for the same have been enlisted above. At present the domestic consumption cost about 1.89 billion USD which is very low compared to her neighbours. Although there are very peoples sound economic condition but dont tend to spend much on healthcare.
Pakistan Pharma industries need to give a good look at RND and tie ups with multi nationals. Also they need to change as per the market Dynamics and take their industries to the global level.
With regards
Shrikant Parwate
Wockhardt Pharmaceuticals Research center.
India.