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Analysis of The Pharmaceutical Industry
Analysis of The Pharmaceutical Industry
Analysis of The Pharmaceutical Industry
• At the time of independence, we did not have
any pharma units.
• The establishment of national companies started
in 1960s.
• Today, we have 600 pharma companies
operating in Pakistan.
• 386 manufacturing units
• Low cost of production and huge potential of
this sector has attracted multi‐national
companies.
• 30 multinationals are currently operating in
the country.
Health expenditures have more than doubled in the last
7 years
The expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been
consistent that is 0.6% during this 7 years
Health Infrastructure
Description Number up till 2007
Hospitals 945
Basic Health Units 5349
Dispensaries 4755
MBBS Doctors 127,859
Nurses 62,651
Population per Doctor 1,225
Population per Nurse 2,501
Some key statistics of the industry
Companies operating in the industry 600
Number of employees Over 100,000
Registered Drugs 47000
Registered Molecules 1100
R&D expenditure 1% of the profit
Average growth Rate 11%
Market share of Multinationals companies 45%
Market share of Local companies 55%
Market Leader GlaxoSmithKline
• Out of the top 50 companies, in‐depth
interviews of 15 companies were taken
• 5 interview with chemists
• 10 interviews with sales representatives of
different companies
• 5 interviews with the doctors
• The raw materials are mostly imported from
China and India in the last 3‐4 years
• These raw materials are very much expensive
to develop
• Pakistan does not have the technology to
produce these chemicals
• Raw materials for the purpose of packaging
are purchased from the local market such as
glass bottles, plastics and paper.
• Solvents such as ethylene chloride, ethane,
methanol etc are used for the production of
medicines
• Sugar and lactose which are produced in
Pakistan are also a few of the ingredients
needed for production of drugs
• Other major materials used in the capsule
manufacturing are dyes, dye ‐aids,
preservatives and glycerin.
• Research shows that if a certain medicinal
drug is imported, it would be priced around
Rs. 8000 in Pakistan
• If the required raw material is imported, and
the drug manufactured in Pakistan, its price
would be Rs. 6000
• If the medicine is completely produced locally,
its price would be as low as Rs. 3500 to
patients.
Our Government provides incentives to
companies who manufacture raw materials
such as
• Duty free import of plant and equipment
• Tax holidays for raw material manufacturers
We export our manufactured products to:
• Raw materials are, mostly, kept in quarantine
area after their arrival at the plant
• After the testing in QC laboratory, approved
and rejected materials are transferred and
stored in separate sections.
• The pharmaceutical industry is highly capital
intensive
• The development expenditure on Health is
around 14,272 bilion rupees
• The installation of a small manufacturing plant
requires around 2 million rupees
• Most of the manufacturing machines are
imported from foreign countries.
• Machines used for packaging and counting the
number of medicines are locally produced
• Locally manufactured machines constitute
about 10‐15% of the overall machinery
• Mixing and blending vessels
• Granulating machines
• Drying chambers
• Autoclaves and ovens
• Tablets Compression Machines
• Tablets Coating Machines
• Capsule Manufacturing Machines
• Encapsulation Machines
• Quality control Laboratory: Most of the plants
have their own laboratories to for quality control
and quality assurance of the raw materials
• Ventilation Systems: They maintain the quality of
the working atmosphere by taking away the
chemical fumes and vapors, released from
processes to the occupational atmosphere and by
supplying the fresh air to the process areas
• Chillers and Cooling Towers : Chillers and cooling
towers are provided, where centralized air
conditioning systems are installed.
• Water Distillation Unit: Distilled water is used in
Injections and in a variety of other medicines.
Distillation process is applied to produce such
water.
• Generators :In most of the plants, electric
generators are provided as standby facility, in
event of main power failure
• Hydraulic Press: Some plants have hydraulic
presses, for damaging the empty raw materials
drums, prior to their dispatch to the contractor
• Shredder : Some plants have installed shredders
to break the rejected bottles, prior to their
dispatch to the contractor for recycling or
disposal purposes. This process prevents the
possible direct use of these contaminated
bottles.
• Incinerator :Few plants have incineration
facilities for the safe disposal of their
hazardous solid and liquid wastes
• Fire Detection and Fighting Systems :Some of
the units have fire detection and alarm
systems. Fire fighting facilities range, from
plant to plant, from provision of manual fire
extinguishers to water ‐based fire hydrant
and/or automatic sprinkler systems.
• The manufacturing machines are mostly
imported from China
• This kind of machinery is outdated and obsolete.
• Pharmaceutical plants are inspected by Federal,
Provincial drug inspectors 2‐3 times in a year
• The licensed Pharmaceutical plants are also
subjected to detailed inspection by Federal
Inspection team once in 2 years
• The pharmaceutical industry provides
employment to about one million skilled and
semi‐skilled personnel
• It directly employs about 162000 personnel
with large number of science graduates
• The manufacturing side requires its
employees to have a minimum of a bachelors
degree
• It indirectly employees 1 billion people
• Lack of PhD’s in the research and
development department
• Lack of doctors trained in the quality
assurance of the products
• Only MNC’s and a few local companies have
trained experts
• Sales Representatives are recruited by
pharmaceutical companies
• Training sessions are conducted on a monthly
and quarterly basis by the multinational firms
• Local companies usually conduct training
sessions once a year for their employees
• Employees are sent to Germany for their
training sessions
• Companies ensure safe working conditions for
their employees
• They make sure that a safe working condition
is given to the employees
• Dispensaries are set up to provide first aid to
the employees in case of an accident
• Merck, one of the MNC’s has set up a
separate department known as HSSE (health,
safety, security and environment) department
• At Nabi Qasim, employees are given air
showers to purify them from dirt before they
touch medicines in order to ensure better
quality of products
• In Pakistan, the focus of the research and
development department is on the packaging
and the marketing of the products
• Research on product development is very
expensive
• Millions of dollars are spent on developing a
single molecule of a medicine
• Companies who develop new products need
to acquire patents
• In Pakistan, the pharmaceutical companies wait
for the patent to get expired and then they copy
the product and bring it into the market.
• Also companies allocate about 1 or 2% of their
total budget to the research and development
department
• There has been research work done in hospitals
such as Agha khan, Kiran Hospital,Shaukat
Khanam regarding the study of cancer.
• The population of 160 million people is a basic
demand driver
• There is an annual growth of 2% in the
population
• The declining health conditions and the
burden of diseases demand the local
pharmaceutical industry to produce products
that could cure them
Burden of diseases in Pakistan
Communicable diseases 38.4%
Rh disorders 12.5%
Nutritional deficiencies 5.8%
Accidents / Injuries 11.40%
Diabetes / Cardiovascular 10.60%
diseases
Neuro / Psychiatric 2.60%
diseases
Other non communicable 18.9%
diseases
• The pharmaceutical companies assess
demands of their products and what products
to produce by looking at the age structure and
gender ratio of the population
AGE STRUCTURE
• On an average a household spends about
77% of their household health budget on
purchasing medicines
• 80‐85% of the local demand is met by our
pharma industry
• however, there are certain medicines that
we import. The demand for these
medicines is 5‐10%
• Such medicines include hepatology
(hepatitis vaccines) and oncology (drugs
to cure cancer)
• Sales Representatives of the pharmaceutical
companies play an important role in creating
demand for the product.
• These Representatives have a list of the
products they have to promote to different
doctors
• Different techniques are used by these
representatives for convincing the doctor
• These sales representatives either convince
the doctor of the benefits of their products in
comparison with other products of the same
type
• Or the company gives the doctor commission
(for example 20%)
• The doctors are also given free gifts (silent
reminders), lunches and dinners and paid
vacation trips with their families
• Some companies also engage themselves in
academic activities. They give doctors medical
books and send them abroad to attend
conferences
• Promotional activities – Example: Elite Pharma
gave warid USB worth Rs. 13000 to 50 doctors
Marketing Manager
Country Manager
Business Manager
Sales Manager
Field Manager
Sales Representatives
Why unethical practices??
• Huge chunk of our local production is
exported to Middle Eastern Countries, African
countries, Canada, Singapore and some
European countries
• The exports of our medicines were $40 million
in 2000 and now it is above $60 million
• Health Asia
• Pharma Asia
• These are a great
source to attract
Foreign Direct
Investment
• Smuggling of cheaper medicine – 5 times
cheaper than the generic produced here
• The drugs like anti cancer drugs have to be
imported because we don’t have the
technology and expertise to produce these
drugs, therefore its much cheaper to import
• Unethical practices practiced by some
companies in marketing the product
• “Tool Manufacturing”
• Counterfeit drugs – an imitation of the
original drug
• It constitutes to about 40 – 50% of the total
medicines available in the market
• “Over‐the‐counter‐drugs” (OTC) are also an
issue – no regulation!
• “Transfer Pricing”
• There are more than
400 pharmaceutical
companies
• There are about 30‐
35 multinationals
working
• The market share of
these multinationals
is about 45%
• The top 50 companies enjoy about 82% of the
market share
• A well developed pharmaceutical company
has the following departments:
The following is the province break up of the pharma
companies
250
200
150
multinationals
100 Nationals
50
0
Sindh Punjab NWFP Balochistan
• It is a very well organized sector and it is also
one of the most regulated sectors of Pakistan
• The companies are fully documented
• The prices of the products are set by the
government, the upper cap is given
• The Drug Act of 1976 is being followed to
keep the prices, to check the manufacturing,
to register the drug, for imports and exports,
etc
• Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s
Association(PPMA)
• Pharma Bureau(PB)
• The strict government control over pricing under
Essential Drug List (EDL) has made many drugs
uneconomical
• There is a lot of corruption because of which a lot of
“under‐hand” dealing takes place
• There are a few national companies with no HR
departments:
– Amarant Pharma
– Pharm Asia
– Ali Gouhar Pharma
– Metrix Pharma
• The pharmaceutical companies are usually
located in the same vicinity
• In Karachi they are mostly located in Korangi
and SITE area
• Rivalry increases but leads to more
competitiveness and innovative products
• There has been a constant domination of
multinational companies in the
pharmaceutical industry as the top 20 pharma
companies in Pakistan are all multinationals
and control over 53% of the total
pharmaceutical market.
RELATED AND SUPPORTING
INDUSTRIES
Biotechnology
• Simple molecules are found through trial and
error to treat the symptoms of a disease or
illness.
• It offers promise in augmenting existing
technologies in the pharmaceutical industry.
• The field shows immense importance.
Engineering Industry
• The local demand is not currently fulfilled by our
engineering sector.
• All of the critical equipment and machinery is
imported from abroad such as China, Italy,
Germany and India.
• Tablet Coating Machines, Capsule Manufacturing
Machines
Chemical Industry
• It provides basic raw materials whereas more
than 90% of the raw materials are imported.
• Lack of interest and involvement on part of the
government.
• No major steps taken to increase the exploration
of required chemicals.
Packaging Industry
• It consists of a vast range of devices used for
forming,filling,wrapping,sealing,cleaning and
packing products.
• Medicines in bulk form are sent for desired
packaging on purpose built machines.
• The machines are not designed for quick
changeovers and flexibility.
Printing Industry
• The printing machines are used for printing
prices, manufacturing and expiry dates on
packaging materials.
• The pharmaceutical companies are satisfied with
the quality of services.
• Our printing industry has a respectable place all
over the world. Far East, Middle East, Europe.
Hospitals and Pharmacies
• They are basically the direct buyers of
pharmaceutical products.
• Play an important role in promoting fake
medicines.
• There are many disorganized and uncategorized
pharmacies across the nation.
• Over the counter drugs
• Collaborations with the Indian companies that
are already looking to enter the market would
be another opportunity that can be cashed by
local pharmaceutical companies.
• Pakistani exporters also need to focus on
African regions, and develop markets in these
regions.
• A fast changing international market demands
the setting up of exclusive export houses
separate from the manufacturing.
• An aggressive promotional campaign
identifying Pakistan with quality products in
the international market, is the need of the
hour.
• Pakistani manufacturers should keep
themselves abreast of the expired patent
medicines in order to manufacture drugs with
lower cost.
• The local pharmaceutical companies need to
shift their focus towards developing
communication channels with multinationals,
to form strategic alliances and also benefit
from their technological advancements.
• In Pakistan, a strong association and
collaboration between the academic institutes
and industry needs to be established.
• The govt. should take effective action against
unethical marketing practices employed by
some multinationals as well as local Pharma
manufacturers.
• The Government incentives on R&D and
encouraging industrial policies, if adopted, will
encourage companies to set up their own
R&D units and set up manufacturing units at
tax free zone.
• The govt. should provide research
infrastructure & laboratories to the domestic
universities and other academic institutions.