Pharmaceutical industry meets 95 percent of country's needs.

LAHORE -- The Pakistan pharmaceutical industry currently meets 95% of the country's medicine requirements and country only imports 5 percent medicine based on new molecules and compounds and new research-based products. The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has allowed the import of finished products from China and India which is disastrous for the local pharmaceutical industry. These views were expressed by Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) Nadeem Zafar during a meeting with President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kashif Anwar, Senior Vice President Zafar Mahmood Chaudhry and Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt here at LCCI on Monday. President, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, PPMA Vice Chairman Saleem Iqbal, Aamir Saleem Butt, Haseeb Khan and others also spoke on this occasion. Even though Pakistani drugs have a higher acceptance rate than India's, Nadeem Zafar stated that up to 90 percent of the pharmaceuticals that the European Union imports come from India. In addition, 80 percent of Indian companies have received FDA approval, and FDA has even opened an office there. He went on to say that only effective policies can save this industry because its export potential is unmatched by any other industry. He continued by saying that Pakistan, which is Afghanistan's neighbor, has the ability and potential to export drugs to Afghanistan while pharmaceuticals are already being exported from India to Afghanistan via Pakistan. Pakistani pharmaceutical businesses were unable to even change distributors in Afghanistan due to registration restrictions imposed by the former...