Islamabad: The import of medicines from India under proposed Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status will threaten closure of local pharmaceutical industry as well as significant loss of jobs.
The Indian pharmaceutical market is of 10 times bigger in size than that of Pakistan. Being a global player in pharmaceutical sector, and after having MFN from Pakistan, Indian industry would be nothing less than monster for Pakistan manufacturers.
Therefore, local pharmaceutical manufacturers are perturbed and have considered this in principle decision to grant MFN to India as impropriate.
Health experts and pharmaceutical manufacturers on Sunday said that around 20 to 25 per cent drugs manufactured in India were spurious. “India, being world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs, has become a busy center for counterfeit and
substandard medicines. Stuffed in slick packaging, the fake drugs are passed on to consumers and sold in developing nations around the world,” Chairman of Pharmaceutical Business Association (Regd), Aslam Naqqash said.
He said each and every province in India has its own regulatory system and it (India) was trying to introduce a Federal Regulatory Authority (FDA) to discourage fake drugs manufacturing.
He said Bangladesh has imposed a complete ban on Indian pharmaceutical products. This ban has helped Bangladesh pharmaceutical sector to grow and become global exporters, thus providing foreign exchange as well as local jobs.
Naqqash said the national pharma industry has invested substantially to upgrade itself in the last few years and today the majority of the industry is following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), in accordance with the domestic as well as international guidance. He said pharma finished products from India can be imported but these must be registered with their FDA.
In his comments, new Chief of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), Khawaja Muhammad Asad said in Pakistan the regulatory systems have been shifted to provinces. He asked the government to establish as early as possible
Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) to help flourish the industry and to stop course of spurious drugs.
Chairman PPMA said currently the industry has the capacity to manufacture a variety of product ranging from simple pills to sophisticated Biotech, Oncology and Value Added Generic compounds.
 He said Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry meets around 90 per cent of the country’s demand of finished medicine. All these achievements would go down the drain and a vibrant and forward looking industry would be demolished if medicines, including biotech products are allowed to be imported from India.
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