KARACHI: Native and international pharmaceutical firms haven’t closed down but regardless of dealing with scarcity of imported uncooked supplies from India and China and are as an alternative making an attempt to supply them from different sources.
“We can sustain with available raw material stocks till April. Companies are managing special cargo flights through foreign and local logistic players and bringing inputs from various sources despite higher cost,” Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Affiliation (PPMA) Chairman Mohammad Zaka ur Rehman informed Daybreak from Lahore on Saturday.
“Manufacturers also have sufficient stocks of medicines. Consumers should avoid panic buying. Instead of a particular brand prescribed by the doctors, they can ask the practitioners to shift to other names of the same formale produced by different companies in larger numbers,” he stated.
“Our medicine industries are open. China is also open now but flights are not coming, while India is locked down for three weeks followed by closure of some European and far east countries,” Rehman stated.
After a war-like state of affairs between Pakistan and India final yr and suspension in bilateral commerce,, native pharma firms had discovered new sources for procuring uncooked supplies, he stated.
Intra-country motion of products being restricted regardless of exclusion
“The proportion of Indian raw material has plunged to 10-15 per cent from 40pc a year back, followed by an increase in share of China to 40pc from 25pc in the same period,” he claimed.
In home markets, drugs scarcity has emerged owing to detention of autos on inter-provincial and intercity routes carrying uncooked supplies and completed items by the legislation enforcement businesses regardless of exemption on pharmaceutical gadgets. He hoped that state of affairs would enhance from Monday as Prime Minister Imran Khan had allowed free items motion to avert any scarcity of important items.
PPMA chief stated that round 80laptop of docs are additionally not opening their clinics in Punjab primarily, in addition to different provinces because of the lockdown, thus creating issues for non-coronavirus sufferers.
“I have asked the Punjab government to allow opening of clinics as people are avoiding going to the public sector hospitals where COVID-19 infectees are being treated.”
Pharma Bureau (PB) Spokesperson Ayesha Tammy Haq informed Daybreak that “so far no company has closed down due to raw material shortage.”
“Our member companies are bringing raw materials from different sources instead of China and India,” she stated, including “our industries still have sufficient raw material stocks in hands.”
Nonetheless, she feared scarcity of medicines within the nation amid lockdown as regardless of the exclusion, safety businesses are hindering motion and transportation of medicines and workers of pharma firms.
Haq requested the federal government to help uninterrupted motion of medication and workers of pharma firms to make sure clean manufacturing and provide of medicines. In any other case, non-availability of prescription drugs may convert right into a significant issue within the present circumstances.
Workers of pharma firms are additionally being stopped on their option to workplaces which can affect manufacturing and provide of medicines, she added.
Pakistan’s pharma market is round Rs450 billion and one of many greatest employers within the nation.
Revealed in Daybreak, March 29th, 2020
