The federal cabinet has approved the proposal related to contract manufacturing for the pharmaceutical sector, said Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday.

“It will open new avenues for export and joint venture opportunities for our pharmaceutical industry,” tweeted Dawood.

The advisor informed that contract manufacturing enables SMEs to begin selling their products without obtaining a large amount of capital necessary to build and run a factory. “This will also bring new job opportunities,” he added.

Contract manufacturing is the outsourcing of a part of the manufacturing process of a product to a third party.

Earlier, Dawood said that the government has set an export target of $38 billion for the current fiscal year in consultations with the relevant stakeholders.

$38bn export target set thru consultations with stakeholders: Dawood

Addressing the 1st Pharma Export Summit and Awards (Pesa) 2021 ceremony, he said that the government will try to take the exports of goods and services to the $40-billion mark. Dawood expressed confidence that the industries and the farmers will play their part to achieve the export target.

He said that the government envisaged taking pharma sector's exports to $5 billion by 2025.

Pakistan's pharma sector was valued at around $3.2 billion in 2020, showing an increase of 200 percent over a period of nine years, according to Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association (PPMA) Chairman Tauqeerul Haq, who was of the view that the industry can reach a value of $5 billion in the next few years.

Exports from this sector of the economy were worth $218 million in 2019, up from $44.4 million in 2003.

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