Pharma Veterans

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Pharmacists and Pharmacies – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 979 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 979 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: BYB BYB Credit: Gustavo Fring Credit: Maria Orlova Pharmacists There has been an exponential increase in the number of pharmacy departments all over the country. Every private university and medical college are now offering pharmacy degree also. The number of pharmacy graduates qualifying every year has therefore increased greatly. Pharmacy Council is the legal body that registers pharmacists which makes them eligible to practice pharmacy and seek a job as pharmacist. Pharmacy Council website says the number of registered pharmacists in their record is 59,586; pharmacy technicians are 16,769, which is a diploma level education....

Drug Sales Channels – Drug Pricing in Pakistan – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #864 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #864 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. Credit: Ana Sofia Bustamante Credit: Jose Ismael Espinola Credit: World Sikh Organization of Canada We have seen drug pricing in relation to government policies, its historical perspective, and the controversies. It would now be instructive to understand drug sales channels and how these may impact the drug pricing for the consumers. Drug Sales Channels The channels are distributors, wholesalers, and retail pharmacies, each of whom gets a certain percentage as service charges. Since the maximum selling price of a drug is fixed by DRAP already, these percentag...

Pharma Companies – Doing More of the Same – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #672 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #672 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. No question, we are in a difficult situation in Pakistan. All industries are in great stress, and it is not just about increasing the selling prices, there are additional challenges. Pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Stress factors for Pharma can be quickly run through like this. Pharma industry is heavily dependent on imports. With the rupee at current exchange rate, the cost increases exponentially. Add to it the increase in utilities prices, paper prices, logistics cost and so on, and the margin is all but eroded. Pharma industry selling prices are re...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 10 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #601 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #601 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 ...