Pharma Veterans

Drug Prices Row – Important Points – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #831 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #831 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans aims to share knowledge and wisdom from 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. Photo Credit: Karolina Grabowska Photo Credit: Anna Shvets Photo Credit: Polina Tankilevitch Drug Prices have been a cause for face-off between Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) and Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) for quite some time. PPMA members continued to ask for price increase on the basis of continuous rise in the cost of inputs, partly due to rupee devaluation and partly due to increased cost of utilities, labor etc. DRAP and its predecessor Ministry of Health (MoH) sometimes agreed and sometimes did not. Across the board increase...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 52 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #643 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #643 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome 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. Opening Note February 2022 marked my completing 47 years of working in Pharma Industry. Allah be praised. I am still working. My journey of near half century is also the journey of Pharma Industry in Pakistan. Great changes have occurred in this time and a lot could be written about it. In my blogs, which were started about four and a half years ago, I have covered several topics related to Pakistan Pharma Industry. This multi-part series is the SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats – Analysis of the Pharma Industry and propose strategies. EPILOGUE … II ...

  Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 38 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #629 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #629 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome 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. Opening Note February 2022 marked my completing 47 years of working in Pharma Industry. Allah be praised. I am still working. My journey of near half century is also the journey of Pharma Industry in Pakistan. Great changes have occurred in this time and a lot could be written about it. In my blogs, which were started about four and a half years ago, I have covered several topics related to Pakistan Pharma Industry. This multi-part series shall do and review the SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats – of the Pharma Industry. STRATEGIES It is now t...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 19 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #610 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #609 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome 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. Opening Note February 2022 marks my completing 47 years of working in Pharma Industry. Allah be praised. I am still working. The first half of my working career was spent in Multinational companies, and the latter half in the Local Pharma, making me well-versed with both innovators and generics markets. I also had the opportunity to work in business as well as operations.  My journey of near half century is also the journey of Pharma Industry in Pakistan. Great changes have occurred in this time and a lot could be written about it. In my blogs, which were started ...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 15 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #606 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #606 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome 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. Opening Note February 2022 marks my completing 47 years of working in Pharma Industry. Allah be praised. I am still working. The first half of my working career was spent in Multinational companies, and the latter half in the Local Pharma, making me well-versed with both innovators and generics markets. I also had the opportunity to work in business as well as operations.  My journey of near half century is also the journey of Pharma Industry in Pakistan. Great changes have occurred in this time and a lot could be written about it. In my blogs, which were started ...

GST Levy on Pharmaceuticals – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #583 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #583. Pharma Veterans welcome 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. News reports say that the government has finalized the mini-budget to raise about 360 billion rupees by levying 17% General Sales Tax – GST on 140 items or so. The items include milk, cereals, bakery items, meat, chicken, gold, bicycles, cars including electric cars, mobile phones, phone calls, pharmaceutical raw materials and so on.  It is yet a draft which will have to be approved by the parliament so that it could be implemented. Considering that most members of our parliament either do not understand such technical matters (the rest understand too well and try to manipulat...

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...