ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government has blocked a proposal for importing 400 medicines from India following intense lobbying against the move by the local pharmaceutical industry.

The proposal forwarded by Pakistan's commerce ministry was stalled ahead of an expected hike of upto 40 per cent in the prices of life-saving drugs in the country.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has reportedly issued a direction that no drug produced in Pakistan should be imported. Gilani also sought justification for importing from India 13 vaccines and some oncology drugs that are currently not produced in Pakistan, sources told the Dawn newspaper. However, the import of these vaccines and oncology products will continue.

Health Secretary Khushnood Lashari will meet Commerce Secretary Asif Shah to ensure that the proposal for importing Indian drugs is closed.

Sources in the commerce ministry had leaked information about the proposal to import Indian drugs to the local pharmaceutical industry, which used its "contacts" to pre-empt the move, the daily said.

Local entrepreneurs contended that the proposed imports would threaten the jobs of over one million people, affect annual exports worth more than 120 million dollars and compromise the availability of medicines during emergencies.

Pakistan's pharmaceutical industry is worth Rs 83 billion and enjoys considerable political clout.

Meanwhile, the health ministry's advisory committee on drug prices has recommended a 10 to 40 per cent increase in prices of various life-saving drugs.

Good, ban all indian products, give the Pakistani markets to grow and produce their own and enforce it with proper regulatory laws and particular govt organization which would see to it that there are no crooked pratices. If we keep on depending on others for imports, we will never grow own stuff to the quality of our people and our standards. And would never be able to export and generate more revenue and growth for our market. We need to stamp out this dependency and particularly eliminate any and every indian product from our markets.

They are proposing a 10-40% price hike for local product and denying Indian firms to enter market (which are way cheaper).

is it good for Pakistani public? i thought lower the price, better it was for everyone.

Well said. Medicine is just the tip of the iceberg. Focus should lie on strengthening the internal market of Pakistan. Iran is a good example. Trade deficit is also mainly due to this reason. We've never allowed our domestic market to properly develop and flourish. Foreign products have always dominated and strained the domestic goods. We need to protect our local markets. Preference and priority should be given to local markets. Indian products should definitely be boycotted. The vis-a-vis export figures between Pakistan and India are shocking. Pakistan has always been on the losing end. Time to review our import and export policies. Trade should be expanded massively with China. The current figures are pathetic.

Medicines are actually life saving drugs, and our poor villagers can surely benefit.
They should begin ban on import of sugar, cement, steel, rubber, tyres, cattle, etc.
And when we are truly self sufficient, all the hospitals and pharmacies have sufficient stock, then take up pharmaceuticals.

Now, this haphazard move will create disparity between supply/demand, how is it a good thing?
Poor people loose their parents and children when there is no medical help provided, either because of lack of funds or medicines.

Majority of our nation are the poor, and trying to afford expensive medication with chronic life threatning diseases is not going to be easy.
How is this a good decission?

How about giving the chance to the domestic pharmaceutical industry to develop cheaper and perhaps qualitative better drugs compared to the Indians? Why should we rely on the Indians when we have alternatives? I don't buy the supply/demand argument. The supply/demand doesn't seem to be the issue here. Maybe time is required to produce new medicine that is currently being imported, but that is a different issue. To quote the article:

Local entrepreneurs contended that the proposed imports would threaten the jobs of over one million people, affect annual exports worth more than 120 million dollars and compromise the availability of medicines during emergencies.

I'm torn on the issue. I'm all for giving support to local producers, but you know that shielding them from market forces will only protect the weak. The market will suffer due to a lack of supply and higher demand for medicine. Mind you if we can afford to export, then perhaps we should focus on ensuring domestic needs are met before companies can export. I also think that some foreign companies should be given access to the market, companies from friendly countries, not India, we need to kick our economy and it's weaker sectors into shape through harsh market realities, if we end up with only 2-3 world class companies and hundreds others finish, as long as they can serve Pakistan's needs, it doesn't matter.

Look like everyone is falling for the oldest trick in the book!!

Ok let me explain: Assume the government allows this to happen--Indian cheap medicine woulkd arrive in the market and within a limited time take over most of the market because people would obviously prefer cheaper medicines than more expensive local products. Now as result, many local manufacturers will go out of business due to competition. Going of out business means they are broke!

Once this happens, the Indian manufacturers will start raising prices and within a certain period those medicines would equal and in some cases exceed prices previously charged by local producers!! It have experienced this so many times even in the Western world that it is not funny and yet people don't learn!!

The thing I cannot believe is that we have so many learned and intelligent members on this forum and yet they are willingly to make silly decisions without considering the consequences just because they feel sympathy for the victims!!

My sister has brain cancer. Glio Balstoma (MF) grade IV.
Her monthly medicine bill is $3000 US. That translates to about two lakh Pakistani Rupees a month.
The same drug, Temozolamide, is produced in India at 1/4th of the cost.

Do you still think it is wise to stop the trade?

Grow up guys. There is more to life then this simple hatred towards others..

I'm all for it, but until that happens, we can't kill the poor either.
This is a sensitive issue of saving human lives, not the same as a tin or tyre industry.

If we don't have roads, yeah we'll give our contractors an opportunity to build them, but untill then we still have to drive through the desert, can't bring life to a standstill either.

indian medicine is cheap but of very low quality. i know an official in the the Pakistan High Commission in india whos mother had a fractured leg, and needed an operation. the operation was successful but a few days later she died because of infection in her liver which was caused by the medicines the indian doctors were giving her.

You have good point. But you have to admit that our people are not dying because of lack of medicines. Yes maybe the medicine is expensive as compared to India, but then other issues come in such a quality as Skull mentioned.

May Allah Subhanaho Wata'aalah grant your/our sister 'Shifah', may Allah Subhanaho Wata'aalah give your/our sister the strength in 'Imaan', for life comes from Allah and all life shall return to Allah. We love our beloved, for they are Allah's gifts to us, HIS blessings to us, I can only imagine your pain my dear brother and we stand by your side through this. She is as much our sister, as she is your sister and all our prayers are with her. There is no injustice in Allah Subhanaho Wata'aalah's court, she shall witness HIS mercy, for HE loves us seventy times more than our own mothers do and there is no one on the face of this planet who would love you more than your own mother.

My prayers are with you and your/our sister, my dear brother.

I'm really saddened. Brother, may Allah swt bless your sister with a quick and healthy recovery. However, it's not a matter of hatred or anything. It's about gaining self-sufficiency. I understand that certain medicine are very expensive. I also agree that until Pakistani pharmaceutical companies are unable to deliver the medicines, we should keep on importing them. That makes perfect sense. However, we should consider producing such medicines ourselves. In fact, we should have research labs in which the pharmaceutical companies produce drugs and cures for diseases.



You're right. Until Pakistani industry isn't able to produce these drugs we should import them. Life cannot stop. The local medicine companies should first come up with the medicines that are being imported and prove that they can fulfill the demand. In Pakistan people are still dying of ridiculous diseases for which cheap cures have been found decades ago. That's a sham. On the other hand, brother Skull has a point too. Indian medicines can be hazardous to health. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is partly run by mafias and crooks that produce junk. We need to have thorough quality testing of the drugs.

100% agree with Brother Shez

^ I agree Skull has a point, but not so too.
Local industry sales, and export import have different standards (unless smuggled, then there is no solution).

For export of controlled substance (as in Pharmaceuticals), an independent agency (like SGS or Cotecna) has to issue a compliance certificate.
If it's lab tested, then it's lab tested, there's no need to worry then, it's gone through proper channels, and passed our Customs too.

It's the ones, sub-standard types, smuggled across the border, that may or may not meet compliance criterion.
Whether we permit trade or ban it, smuggling is a different matter altogether.

So, demand of cheap medicines, family members suffering, and here we ban the import of pharmaceuticals.
In such sensitive matters, smuggling will prevail, and our markets will get flooded with fake medicines.

This is the other consequense of taking stupid steps without first providing a solution.
We kill the sick, and also kill the healthy who may consume non-compliance medicines.

How is this a good move?

Smuggling is indeed a whole different debate. Obviously, smuggling of medicine should be prevented at all cost.

There have been many instances of people getting more sick and even dying when taking cheap legal drugs from India. We shouldn't take it lightly. I'll post an article on it ASAP. I think that BBC even made a documentary on this particular subject. It's a huge problem. The rate of effectiveness of cheap drugs is a hot debate here in the West.

My argument is totally different though. I'm a staunch supporter of self-reliance. The Pakistani pharmaceutical industry should be given the opportunity to grow and develop. By importing abundant cheap drugs from abroad we're preventing the domestic market from developing as it should. The concerns of the industry are to a certain extent legitimit. We should strike a balance between the two. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Pakistan took the same route as India and started producing qualitative better and cheap drugs? Heck, it could export the cheap drugs to other developing nations as India. I'm certain we have the ability to do so.

Do you disagree?

For the long run it is a good idea, for the short run it is not. By banning the importation of Indian drugs you are giving the local pharmaceutical companies time to grow and develop. This way you will be self reliant on life saving drugs and will allow for further employment within the country. To boost local pharmaceutical companies (along with other industries) we must also eliminate the electricity shortage which plagues the country. This shortage is costing our companies massive amounts of money which add to the overall cost of our products (making them less competitive). Though I agree with Shehz, unless the government can stop the smuggling of these drugs across the border there is no real point of blocking the importation.

Cheap medicine, costly treatment

A single issue in India’s high court will affect the availability of reliable drugs in the world’s poorest countries and the future development of India’s pharmaceutical industry.

Activists claim patent protection will restrict the supply of cheap drugs, particularly in Africa — one can only hope that it will indeed restrict the supply of poorly-copied drugs that have worsened the plight of the poor.

Swiss drug company Novartis is challenging an Indian law that refuses patents on drugs when they are modifications of some existing drugs. This allows Indian firms to produce copies.

Novartis says this clause is unconstitutional because it violates WTO agreements implemented in India in 2005. Under this clause, India refused a patent on Novartis’s Glivec, patented in more than 40 countries — but the issue is not Glivec, it is patent protection itself.

This Section 3(d) of the Patent Law applies only to medicines and it imposes especially severe criteria: both of these exceptions appear to infringe the WTO’s TRIPS agreement on intellectual property.

The case has mobilised activists worldwide, ranging from Midecins Sans Frontihres (MSF) to the chairperson of the World Health Organisation’s Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health.

Their joint open letter says, “the changes sought by Novartis in the Indian Patents Act could negatively affect access to essential generic medicines (in particular HIV/AIDS medicines) not only in India but also in all the developing countries that import Indian generic medicines.”

Their emotional allegations confuse a variety of terms. Generics are copies of medicines whose patents have expired, with the same active ingredients and the same proven effects (“bio-equivalent”): there are few quality problems because they are approved by exacting regulatory authorities. “Copycat” drugs, in contrast, are unregulated copies of patented drugs: they are usually untested and cannot be sold where patent law is respected.

The activists have not cited a single effective generic medicine that would be curbed by respecting patents. The Section 3(d) conditions were introduced to protect Indian “copycat” makers who would suffer most if patents became fully enforced inside India.

The companies that the open letter signatories wish to protect are not makers of true generics but copiers of products patented outside India. Many of these copies are exported to countries that do not require proof of bio-equivalence.

Some of these copies are merely ineffective, while others accelerate drug-resistance: the WHO removed temporary approval (“pre-qualification”) from 18 Indian AIDS drugs in 2004 and it confirmed this January that “drugs which are not pre-qualified could foster resistance to AIDS drugs.”

In Thailand, a government-manufactured antiretroviral copycat called GPO-Vir has made many HIV patients resistant to treatment, raising costs from $24 to $239 per person per month — although open letter signatories MSF and Oxfam continue to promote it in Laos and Cambodia. Resistance among Brazilian users of one Indian copy drug now runs at 44% after two years.

The issue for patients is safety and availability but the activists claim it is all about price. As for the price of Glivec, the Novartis cancer therapy is provided free of charge to 99% of Indian patients needing it.

On the other hand, the open letter fails to criticise the Indian government’s inability to distribute ARVs to AIDS patients in need: only 6% of its 785,000 HIV/AIDS patients receive treatment, although Indian firms, supposedly under threat from Novartis, have been pumping out cheap and effective ARVs for years.

As for money, the Global Fund for HIV/ AIDS has $6.4 billion available but has spent only $2.6 billion over the past four years, because the problem is not price but delivery, infrastructure and personnel. Behind the talk of prices and access to medicines, the avowed aim is to remove patent protection, bring down pharma companies and put research and production under government control.

A decision against Novartis would be a major setback to India’s growing competitive pharmaceutical industry which, in addition to bringing in foreign investment and creating skilled jobs, is quickening the pace of global medical innovation. There is every chance that the next generation of AIDS medicines could come from the labs of Mumbai — perhaps even a lifeline for patients suffering drug resistance as a result of taking copy drugs.

AIDS patients will suffer further if India continues to export unregulated copies to poor countries, accelerating drug resistance and the mutation of HIV. The massive extra cost of treating drug-resistant patients far outweighs the little saved by using copy drugs.

India can best serve the poorest AIDS patients by researching new medicines and manufacturing proven generics under international patent treaties. Or it can take the activist route and jeopardise its economy and patients’ health around the world. The populist decision is rarely the right one.

Source: http://www.criticalopinion.org/articles/5

I never disagreed with you, all I emphasized was that until a solution is formulated, we have to let the import of life saving drugs continue.

It's a controlled substance industry, so we know what Pakistani manufacturers are capable of (generic), as name brands have their own plants.
What ever is permitted by patent, only those can be manufactured.

Formulate a list, and say go, develop it, you have (example) 2/3 years.
Until that period banning import will not be a wise move, as we'll be the ones suffering.

If people can't have access to medications, either due to costs or availability, smuggling will prevail, the ban will not achieve any thing, but further destruction of our own industries.
Example is wheat, we went short, import was banned from India, what was the end result besides smuggling and hoarding?

Nice article, but doesn't apply to us.
it's emphasizing on violation of patent rights, like DVD piracy in Pakistan.
Novartis is crying as they are not getting the profit of their billion dollar R&D.

Whether they violate patent rights or not, we're not the ones facing any legal consequences, their local industry will, we care about getting low cost medications to our poor.
Also, sub-standard medicines will come via the smuggled route, as proper import channels will have to meet compliance criterion.

RESEARCH LETTER

Counterfeit and substandard quality of drugs: The need for an effective and stringent regulatory control in India and other developing countries

One of the latest threats facing the global pharmaceutical industry and healthcare is the presence of spurious/substandard drugs in the market. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that counterfeit drugs account for approximately 5-8% of the total worldwide trade in pharmaceuticals. According to the WHO, 'a counterfeit drug is one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity, composition, and/or source.' This definition of counterfeit includes not only completely fake drugs but also those that have been tampered with, adulterated, diluted, repackaged, or relabeled so as to misrepresent the dosage, origin, or expiration date, as well as those substandard drugs that are cheaply produced in order to make unlawful profits. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (USA) estimates that sales in counterfeit pharmaceuticals will reach US $75 billion in 2010.

Reports show that substandard drugs are available in the market worldwide. These reports are not only from the poor or developing countries but also from the developed world. However, this problem is much more severe in developing countries than in countries such as the US, UK, Canada, and other industrialized countries. In 2000, the health ministry in Russia reported that 56 drugs were counterfeit. The following year, approximately 3.6% of all pharmaceuticals in Russia were found to be fake. The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) reported that in spite of stringent controls, the number of cases of counterfeit drugs had increased in 2001 compared to the number of cases five years earlier.

There have always been doubts regarding the quality of the drugs available in the developing countries. Reports of treatment failure and drug resistance are frequent, and this is probably because of the use of substandard/counterfeit drugs in African and Asian countries. The other possible reasons could be the drugs' chemical instability, inappropriate storage and transport, and poor quality control during manufacturing. The quality of some pharmaceutical products that are exported to the least developed countries do not even meet basic quality standards. In a random quality testing in Nigeria, 48% of the samples of different categories of drug products were found to be outside the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) limits for drug assay. Out of these, some drug products were even lacking in the active ingredient. Almost 40% of these drug products were manufactured in India. In the recent past, the WHO has withdrawn the AIDS drugs manufactured by an Indian pharmaceutical company from the list when they found that the Contract Research Organization (CRO) that carried out the clinical study was not properly regulated as per the WHO standards.

A study carried out in Nigeria, found that only three out of the eight brands of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine tablets passed all BP quality specifications and were physically and chemically equivalent. There have been several reports of substandard artesunate in South East Asia. From 104 samples of artesunate taken from South East Asian countries, including Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, 39 (38%) were counterfeit and 30 (29%) contained no artesunate at all. A recent WHO report provides information regarding the origin of counterfeit drugs in South East Asian countries. According to this study, Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Thailand have the largest number of illegal pharmaceutical vendors, unapproved pharmaceuticals, and illegal pharmaceutical manufacturers. Interestingly, China and India are the leaders in counterfeit drug production and most of the bulk active ingredients produced by China and India are used in the manufacture of counterfeit pharmaceuticals worldwide.

In 1999, the WHO published extensive guidelines to combat counterfeit drugs. Recently WHO has suggested a rapid alert system for the relevant authorities in Asian countries to combat the global threat posed by counterfeit pharmaceuticals. In 2004, a workshop was organized by the International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities (ICDRA) in conjunction with the Spanish Medicines Agency, with its main focus on combating counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Approximately 100 participants from several national drug regulatory authorities, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, industry associations, and media personnel participated and expressed their opinions on national and international perspectives. The need of the hour is to ensure the quality of the products being manufactured for consumption within the country or for export to other countries. WHO is planning to launch a task force to fight counterfeit drugs, vaccines, and other medical products. This task force will focus on increasing the awareness regarding counterfeit drugs and motivating consumers to report suspected counterfeit products. The International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force is looking to stop the trade in fake drugs, which kills thousands of people every year.

Official government agencies, international bodies, and academia in Asian and African countries have always been aware of the availability of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. However, the data on counterfeit pharmaceuticals in India is only made available through the official government source. India has approximately 20,000 small manufacturing units that produce and supply pharmaceuticals at low cost. A survey conducted in the states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh by a government agency revealed some interesting facts: (1) according to about 70% of patients, pharmacists/chemists suggest substitute pharmaceuticals in case a prescribed pharmaceutical is not available; (2) around 78% of patients opined that chemists/pharmacists do not inform patients about such substitutions; (3) 43% of doctors accept that there are incidents of spurious/substandard drugs being sold in the market; (4) generic drugs from different manufacturers are available with differences of as much as 500% in prices; (5) inadequate quality checking by the respective drug authorities, poor drug awareness, and low literacy rates are the reasons being attributed for the flourishing market in spurious/ substandard drugs.

One of the landmarks in the fight against counterfeit/substandard drugs in India was the Mashelkar Committee Report in 2003. This is a comprehensive report that made proposals to upgrade the Indian drug regulatory standards and guidelines to international standards and to tackle the problem of counterfeit/substandard drugs. On the basis of the cases analyzed by various state government regulatory authorities, 0.5% drugs have been reported to be spurious and, according to initial reports, approximately 10% are of substandard quality. According to a WHO report, India leads the Asian countries by producing 35% of Asia's counterfeit/substandard drugs. Whatever be the actual figure, it is a fact that in India there is a large amount of such drugs present in the market. The main reasons which have been put forward for this are inadequacies in drug testing, severe shortage of regulatory inspectors, corruption, and lack of law enforcement.

The Mashelkar Committee has made two important recommendations: (1) strict vigilance must be maintained, with regular surprise checks at pharmacies and for the cause checks (suspicious checks) and (2) provision of quality testing facilities for pharmaceuticals. Regular drug sample testing exercises also helps in identifying the incidence of counterfeits.

One of the major recommendations is with regard to the need for improving the drug testing facilities at the state and federal level. Adequate infrastructure is required to test pharmaceuticals. Only 15 Indian states have functional drug testing laboratories, out of which only seven are adequately equipped and staffed. At least 11 states have no drug testing facility. Academic institutions (both pharmacy and medical colleges) with advanced well-equipped testing laboratories offer a ray of hope in India. There are 132 approved post-graduate education and research institutions in pharmacy. These institutions can be established as quality-testing centers in collaboration with the regulatory agency. Likewise, bioequivalence testing facilities can be initiated in those institutions that have clinical facilities, e.g., the National Bioavailability Center (NBC) at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Chandigarh and the Ph.D Pharmaceutical Medicine program at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi. The center at NIPER is accredited by WHO and is one of the two centers in the world recognized for conducting bioequivalence studies of fixed-dose combinations of antitubercular drugs, whereas the Pharmaceutical Medicine program at Jamia Hamdard is one of its specialized programs, where most research projects are based on bioavailability, bioequivalence, and drug interaction studies, etc. in healthy volunteers. In November 2006, the Chemical, Fertilizer, and Steel ministry announced the setting up of five more NIPER-like institutes in the metro cities of India.

All these efforts and the availability of sufficient infrastructure can ensure stringent regulation and improved vigilance over the quality of pharmaceuticals. Nigeria is an example of a country that is successfully fighting the problem of counterfeit drugs and looking to eradicate it altogether.

Source: http://www.ijp-online.com/article.asp?issn...207;aulast=Khan

Forget the patents etc. which by the way is a legimit concern, but not part of our discussion. Concentrate on the following:

Some of these copies are merely ineffective, while others accelerate drug-resistance: the WHO removed temporary approval ("pre-qualification") from 18 Indian AIDS drugs in 2004 and it confirmed this January that "drugs which are not pre-qualified could foster resistance to AIDS drugs."

AIDS patients will suffer further if India continues to export unregulated copies to poor countries, accelerating drug resistance and the mutation of HIV. The massive extra cost of treating drug-resistant patients far outweighs the little saved by using copy drugs.

The cheap drugs that's being imported is already sub-standard! The sub-standard drugs have side effects! This isn't medicine, but addictive drugs. Once a patient is hooked he wants more... It doesn't cure, but worsen the illness.

I already dealt with this in post 16.
These sub-standard medicines will enter Pakistan because of the ban, so the current action of our coalition government will encourage unscrupolous people to do just what I fear.

If we permit import, then the Indian Exporter has to meet compliance (by Cotecna, SGS, etc), and they'll be lab tested, and further cleared by Pak Customs.
Also Chamber of Commerce will have to certify that the company is rated well in the business community.

All the problems of smuggling and fake stuff occurs when haphazardly a commodity goes missing or the cost hikes up beyond the common man's reach.

Brother, the cheap drugs that's being imported is already sub-standard. It wouldn't be cheap otherwise. It isn't tested or certified in anyway.

Their emotional allegations confuse a variety of terms. Generics are copies of medicines whose patents have expired, with the same active ingredients and the same proven effects ("bio-equivalent"): there are few quality problems because they are approved by exacting regulatory authorities. "Copycat" drugs, in contrast, are unregulated copies of patented drugs: they are usually untested and cannot be sold where patent law is respected.

^ You're sure about that?

If that were the case than we are further doomed.
They will continue to pour in, and our "manufacturers" will buy them, label change, and into your homes.

They may not be able to test their local market distribution, but every exporter, who's exporting lke 2 containers every month, the goodies for those 2 containers will need to go through compliance. If not, Pak Customs will send it back on their expense.

Just like our Pakola and chilli chips, local market packing is even sub-standard.
The ones coming into US, the packing is proper, even the Shaan masalas.

If found "not as per LC", even the banks will not pay the exporter.
Our importer can very easily do a compliance Lab-Test here on random boxes, with a clause in the LC.

I'm 100% positive... Cheap unregulated drugs says it all. Taking cheap drugs is like buying a lottery ticket and expecting to win the jackpot.

It's a thin line, don't know for certain which way to cross.

However, I feel that the priority list of import ban's from India should begin with commodities that are not really essential, like cooking oil, soap, pan, rubber, steel, cattle, etc., and tackle the life saving drugs issue for later, when our own industry is settled.

Thanks for the kind words guys and the prayers.

She is a doctor herself and mother of 3 kids. She is fightng cancer for 3 year now. This drug, temozolamide, has done wonders for a lot of patients. Seneator Ted Kennedy has the same GBM desease grade III and he is on the same drug.

Anyone who thinks that indian medicines are suporious or not 100% for for consupmtion should think twice. We should give credit to where it is due.

Another thing we should look into is child surgery. Can you belive it there is almost no cardio surgeon for little kids in Pakistan. You have to take them to India to get operated.

inocrrect, weve had paediatri CT surgeons in pakistan for more than an year now., they just dont market it well. other thing is, for the sake of markets you guys would rather see people die in pakistan? The ban just supports the pharma reps not the people, ok ban drugs that are being bproduced in pak, im all up for it, but dont ban the drugs that are not produced and badly needed.

It looks more and more like the only people that are allowed to survive in pakistan are military personel or rich feudals who can afford guns and an army or pakistanis who can exit the country to europe/US as fast as possible. Poor people in pakistan better adjust because politics is more important then their worthless lives. Their best bet is to join the taliban. Atleast then they will be on the more powerful side of politics.

One should try telling the poor who have to sell their stuff to be able to buy life saving drugs that they shouldn't buy cheaper medicines coz it's made in an enemy country. It's not their fault a Pakistani company doesn't make those medicines, or make them cheap enough. Besides, there is no reason why the same drug manufactured by a Pakistani company should cost more. Cost of raw materials and manpower is almost at par in both countries.

I will slightly disagree on this point, because India definitely has economies of scale. So any time Indian drugs will be cheaper than ours. But, I think that we should promote more trade with China. Chinese companies are well known and produce quality drugs and no cases of fake drugs are registered.

According to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/36/34/39543417.pdf

75% of fake drugs supplied world over have some origins in India, followed by 7 per cent from Egypt and 6 per cent from China.

But hey what the heck, just allow imports from india because poors in Pakistan just cannot afford drugs, so instead of getting better by buying expensive Pakistani drugs it is better to die comsuming fake india drugs!!

Also since India is Pakistan's best Buddy (yawn) so will always supply BEST Quality drugs to Pakistan and will never flood Pakistan market with any FAKE Drugs at all (yawn)!!

Wow I am very impressed by some here!!

All said, its perfectly OK if Pakistan takes a hard measure against Indian imports in all fields, sugar, cement, cars, electronics, cosmetics, in short everything, except life-saving drugs

Only those who have close ones on terminal illnesses and need costly life-saving drugs on regular basis know what i am talking about.................

The assumption here is that Indian companies will estabilish a monopoly in the local pharma market. Any such monopoly will only exist till the products are competitively priced. Any hike which is not in line with global prices will end in the Indian companies losing their market share to either local companies or (more likely) other international companies.

Correct.
The rest of the Indian Industries, they are coming into Pakistan, and setting up manufacturing in Pakistan, with great subsidies, like what The Japs did in US.

We've only banned the import of Pharmaceuticals (probably Novartis/Pfizer paid Zardari a few millions).

Ok, I actually know the guy who was instrumental in getting this ban instituted, he is working at a gas station in the US now, lol. According to him, this ban came about upon the realization that Indian drugs use Animal Fat based oil in mixing their chemicals, as a result immediate importation of these drugs would leave questions of Zabiha oil, etc, unanswered.

and you actually believe that someone instrumental in such important trade decisions would end up in a gas station........?

i cant believe that zabiha oil, of all reasons, would be the reason for such a decision........Pfizer paying a few million $ to Zardari may be more plausible, as suggested by someone above

well this is what happened...

Pakistan's Pharma community holds meetings every year for people working in the field, it's like a professional club thing, Pharmacists, etc. pay about 200 rupees for the event. Now during one of these events people found out that the govt was about to import drugs from India, this did'nt sit well with the Pharama community. So my friend, who came to America about 3 months ago, decided to look for some fault with these drugs, he found that the oil used in making these drugs was non-zabhia, he wrote a short esaay, and in about three days emailed this essay to about 500 club members, needless to say this got the ball rolling, which gave the higher-ups a reason to pester the govt into not importing Indian drugs.