File photograph illustration of capsules of every kind, shapes and hues. PHOTO: REUTERS
KARACHI: The pharmaceutical business has been left with no choice however to start shutting down industries within the subsequent few days, owing to a scarcity of uncooked materials majority of which is imported from China.
“Just like food, people have started stocking up on medicines as well therefore the demand has surged by a great deal,” mentioned Pakistan Pharmaceutical Producers Affiliation (PPMA) Govt Committee Member Kaiser Waheed on Thursday. “Retailers who used to buy inventory for one week are now purchasing medicines for the whole month.”
Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar are the three cities which take pleasure in main presence of the pharmaceutical business, he mentioned.
Closure of industries has begun in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s capital metropolis (Peshawar) as a consequence of unavailability of medicinal uncooked materials, he identified.
He added that closure of small medical corporations within the different two cities has additionally commenced and solely large firms had been manufacturing there.
“It is not that only active ingredients or molecules of the medicines are scarce right now but the packaging material is also hard to find these days,” he mentioned.
He underlined that other than China, Pakistan imported uncooked materials from India which was additionally locked down until April 15; therefore commerce has paused.
“All the Indian companies have informed us that they will not be able to export raw materials till their government permits trade,” Waheed mentioned.
He highlighted that the chairman of the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Authority (NDMA) had assured the business of arranging C130 airplane to resolve the matter in opposition to the fee of $156,000 however the sector didn’t hear again from him.
He confused that the nation would quickly see a hue and cry about medicines as they performed a key function for a society and had been extra very important throughout the present interval than every other time.
He added that whereas the business was going through troubles, authorities was including to its woes.
“Despite the fact that federal and provincial government agreed that pharmaceutical industry was essential and should be allowed to work freely, our workers have been facing hurdles to reach their offices,” he mentioned. “A few that manage to arrive, are not being allowed to transport the medicines to their destinations.”
He lamented that because of the lockdown, there have been blockages in every single place and easy provide of medical items was not doable.
Printed in The Categorical Tribune, March 27th, 2020.
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