PPMA fears medicine shortage if curbs on LCs not removed soon

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) has urged the government and the State Bank of Pakistan to reserve at least $800 million per annum for the pharmaceutical industry to enable it to import essential raw materials for manufacturing medicines in order to ensure their availability in the country.

This was stated by Kaiser Waheed Sheikh, former chairman PPMA, while talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday, adding if the government and the SBP didn’t take necessary steps in time it would create a serious medicine shortage in the country.

“Pakistan may face a shortage of medicines and medical devices in the coming months as local banks are not opening Letters of Credit (LCs) for the import of medicines’ raw materials and medical devices due to the dollar liquidity crunch,” he warned. He added that if the country failed to ensure the import of medicine raw materials, the local markets would be flooded with fake medicines and drugs would be sold at high prices in the black market as a result, the patients will suffer.

He said that consignments arrived at ports were also not be retired, even the SBP had issued a notification in this connection directing all the banks to facilitate the pharmaceutical industry.

He said that despite the clear instructions of the SBP to not create any hurdle for the pharmaceutical industry in the opening of LCs, all local banks were reluctant in opening LCs for the import of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) due to a shortage of dollars in the country.

“The PPMA has the money to buy medicines’ raw material from abroad but the dollar liquidity crunch in the country may result in a shortage of medicines in Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead,” he further said.

“Medicine raw materials with most of the pharmaceutical companies have dried up and they are unable to place orders for the raw material for the future. If LCs are not opened soon, it may result in medicine shortages like the shortage of Panadol, which was not available in most parts of the country.”

“The Panadol shortage was due to the price issue but now we are facing double jeopardy as on the one hand prices are not being increased while on the other hand, raw material is not being imported due to dollars’ unavailability with the central bank,” Sheikh further said.

The former chairman of the PPMA maintained that Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry is an import-based industry; it imports pharmaceutical ingredients and as a result of the rupee devaluation, the cost of raw material was constantly on the rise while the cost of production of medicines was increasing due to rising fuel cost, transportation charges, and increased wages.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023