Pharma Veterans

Freedom of Expression Limits – Special Blog Post by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is a special Blog Post. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Today is 12 Rabi ul Awal. This day is associated with our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and therefore carries huge significance and reverence for Muslims around the world.  Special celebration arrangements are made across Pakistan. The passion and fervor of devotees is inspiring and contagious. This is a defining moment for Muslims. In the name of so-called ‘Freedom of Expression’ the opponents of Islam have gathered together and testing the tolerance of Muslims by insisting on showing blasphemous sketches of our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). Other activities also keep going on unabated. The West has b

Women in the Workplace 2020 Part II – McKinsey Report – Blog Post #400 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #400. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Practice…… When we talk about 2020, the most notable discussion will be about COVID19, which started at the end of 2019, but the full brunt came in 2020. The epidemic is not over yet, it is resurging in many parts of the world.  COVID19 brought with #stayathome and #workfromhome. It has been extended over several months and in some cases, is still staying on and is likely to stay for an indefinite period. COVID19 is an unprecedented situation which has raised new questions, new terminologies, new stresses and new fears. All that happened since the beginning of C

Women in the Workplace 2020 – McKinsey Report – Blog Post #399 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #399. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. McKinsey & Co. had taken up the subject of gender diversity and women in workplace six years ago. This effort, conducted in partnership with Leanin.org, tracks the progress of women in corporate America.  While other countries are not studied directly, but inferences can be drawn based on social and cultural differences. Furthermore, COVID19 is still living with us and its resurgence is already happening in many parts of the world. The effects of COVID19 on work is therefore still highly relevant. Here are some excerpts from the report along with some commentary about Pakistan. “T

COVID19 and Working Women – Blog Post #398 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #398. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. COVID19 has already raised its head again. Many places in Europe and US and other countries have closed again. In some parts, curfew has been imposed to ensure compliance with restrictions. Pakistan is also bracing for another surge. No one is sure about how it will go and what will need to be done. Before we discuss further, I would like to bring to fore the impact of COVID19 Phase I on women in particular. It would not be wrong to say that women suffered more than any other group in this time, and we shall see some ways in which it happened. Women were the first to be sent home to #stayathome and #work

Perceptions about Pharma Industry V – Blog Post #397 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #397. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… Pharma Sales Job is not Respectable – In the last part of this series, we discuss the social aspect of Pharma Industry. Pharma Industry is a relatively small industry. Little is known to common people about this industry although everyone uses some medicine over a lifetime. This is not enough justification anyway. We drink tea everyday but hardly know anything about tea industry. Jobs in Pharma Industry are not considered mainstream jobs; particularly sales job. No student, even in his wildest dreams, ever thinks of becoming a Pharma Salesperson, more popularly called

Perceptions about Pharma Industry IV – Blog Post #396 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #396. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… Medicines are prescribed against money – It is now openly talked that doctors get money from Pharma companies to prescribe their products.  It is an important point and it is worth looking into in greater detail. When I started 45 years ago, the Pharma companies promoted products to doctors in a simple manner. The market was dominated by the multinational companies. There was emphasis on academic content and discussion. Reduced packs as Physician Samples were given which were meant to be given out to patients free. Once or twice a year, some small gift came from paren

Perceptions about Pharma Industry III – Blog Post #395 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #395. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… Prices of Medicines are Very High in Pakistan – this is another strong perception, just like the first two we looked at. I can say upfront that the prices of medicines are not very high. Prices of nutraceuticals, supplements etc. which have come into fashion lately, are not regulated at any stage and many of them are being sold at exorbitant prices. Let us examine it further without debating on it. Following factors influence the drug prices in Pakistan. Medicine Prices are fixed by DRAP – All prices, of all types of human medicines are fixed by DRAP. The manufacture

Perceptions about Pharma Industry II – Blog Post #394 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #394. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. We continue exploring the prevailing perceptions. Most of the Medicines are Fake – this is another popular perception. There are reasons for this. There are talks from ‘certain sources’ who claim that 70-80% medicines on the market are fake. It appears to have stopped for some time, but every now and then a raid is staged on a manufacturing unit and huge piles of fake drugs are shown. The news remains alive for 48-72 hours which is the average age of such news. What happens afterwards is not known. There is no information about any conviction in this regard. I saw one such case closely where

Perceptions about Pharma Industry I – Blog Post #393 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #393. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Pharma Industry of Pakistan is not among the largest industries of Pakistan, but it a reasonably big sized industry. It is also a popular industry because news, mostly negative, keep appearing about it on various media. I would like to take up some of the commonly held perceptions and examine these to separate myths from facts. Being a Pharma Veteran of 45 years, I do understand the industry mechanics well to comment. Pharma Industry is Highly Profitable – When we talk about profit, there are three stages of profit. There is a gross profit which is calculated by simply subtracting the Cost Of

Tender Spots of Pharma Industry VII – Blog Post #392 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #392. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Sum Up – We come to the concluding part of this topic. In the last six posts, we have seen the Pharma industry situation, progress, and challenges inside and outside. We now sum up the rather long discussion into key take-aways. 1. Regulatory Landscape – has changed drastically during the last decade. There are many more additional parameters, standards, and documents which must be implemented. Compliance was always mandatory but now it is watched more strictly. This is not an initiative from DRAP; these are international requirements and Pakistan cannot isolate itself. Risk-based assessme

Tender Spots of Pharma Industry VI – Blog Post #391 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #390. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large . Pharma Veterans Blog  is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress , the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here . Pharmaceutical Associations – Like some other industries, Pharmaceutical industry also has its associations. The purpose of association is to safeguard, advocate and lobby for interests of the industry. Sometimes such organizations may become overly aggressive and assertive, but generally, it is not so. Pharmaceutical industry also has two associations; the MNCs have Pharma Bureau, while the Local Pharma has PPMA – Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. Pharma Bureau is an exclusive organization for multinational Pharma companies. They do not hold election

Tender Spots of Pharma Industry V – Blog Post #390 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #390. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large . Pharma Veterans Blog  is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress , the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here .   Disconnect from Reality – Like many other areas, the government administration and departments are disconnected from reality while making policies in the healthcare sector. At times, it appears that this disconnect is deliberate; at other times it is just there. Some examples will illustrate this point. 1.      Pakistan does not have any USFDA approved pharmaceutical plant till now. As far as is known, no company is even going in that direction. USFDA requirements are difficult to meet. Starting from the site to design of manufacturing unit to processes to materi

Tender Spots of Pharma Industry IV – Blog Post #389 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #389. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large . Pharma Veterans Blog  is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress , the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here . International Business – Pakistan has a fairly developed Pharma Industry and our domestic requirement is easily fulfilled by domestic industry. We only need to import those medicines which cannot be manufactured here owing to technology reasons. Similar situation prevails in India and Bangladesh. Many other countries around us are dependent on import of medicines to varying degrees. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives in South Asia, CIS countries from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam among ASEAN countries and almost all countries of Afric