Pharma Veterans

 Five Global Trends in Business and Society in 2025 – 5 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1067 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1067 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Nischal Mudennavar Credit: Khalid Khan Credit: Mido Makasardi Credit: Nadine Sh This post is based on an INSEAD survey and report. Preamble The INSEAD article "Five Global Trends in Business and Society in 2025" identifies key challenges and opportunities that businesses should address this year. 1. Climate Change 2. Geopolitical Crises 3. Economic Uncertainty 4. Social Instability 5. Income and Wealth Inequality The article emphasises the need for businesses to proactively engage with these issues to foster a more equitable and sustainable society. We take these trends one by one in discussion. Income and We...

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Diagnostic Laboratories – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #985 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #985 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: Unknown Credit: Pavel Danilyuk Credit: Thirdman Diagnostic labs have become an integral part of medical treatment. Unlike previous times, when few labs did manual testing and the only imaging available was x-ray, the diagnostic facilities have come a long way. Along with this development, the doctors’ dependence on lab tests has increased to the extent where almost 100 percent patients are prescribed multiple tests. While it has improved clinical outcomes, it has also added to the cost of medical treatment hugely.  In this blogpost, I shall explore the status of medical diagnostic labs in Pakistan. National Laboratory Policy...

Doing Pharma Business in Pakistan – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #867 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #867 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: Antoni Shkraba Credit: Suzy Hazelwood Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko There are two countering narratives on the matter of ease of doing business in Pakistan. One view is that it is quite easy to do business here because the implementation of regulations is weak; the other view is that it is quite difficult to do business here because the regulations are adverse and business-unfriendly, and corruption among officials is rampant. The second view is more factual. Pharma business in Pakistan is highly regulated at all stages, with regulations aimed at policing and contro...

Global Drug Pricing Practices and Pakistan – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #865 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #865 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: CDC Credit: Los Mortes Crew Credit: MART Production This blogpost partakes from an excellent article by ZUD Babar, published in Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice. Link at the end. The medicines pricing policies of country should cover the following objectives. a. To ensure access to effective, safe, and quality assured affordable medicines for all, b. To establish fair medicines pricing mechanisms that can improve access, c. To support the pharmaceutical industry. It is also important to understand the global medicines pricing setup....

Controversies – Drug Pricing in Pakistan – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #863 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #863 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: Nataliya Viatkevich Credit: Polina Tankilevitch Credit: Anna Shvets Drug Pricing Policy 2018, which is the most recent and current policy for regulating drug prices, stipulated that the pharma companies would be able to increase prices every year automatically, based on inflation data – CPI, issued by the government and as provided in the policy. However, in early 2019, DRAP amended the policy unilaterally to take back its control over drug pricing. This was done after public outcry over price increases and ongoing debate about affordable healthcare. Kabeer...

Policies - Compliance - Culture – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #839 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #839 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. Elizabeth Holmes - CEO Theranos Pfizer gabapentin Pharmaceutical industry is regarded as a highly regulated industry and rightly so. At every step, regulations are applied. The data generated during production and quality control is religiously documented and vetted at various levels. Research data is subjected to even more rigorous vetting. When the local or international teams visit for inspection, their main emphasis is on reviewing documents. The process is simple; they ask for SOPs, review these, and then ask for compliance reports. Compliance becomes the key parameter...

Pain Points of Pharma Industry Pakistan – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #829 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #829 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: Jonathan Borba Photo Credit: Mikhail Nilov Photo Credit: Thirdman Pharma Industry in Pakistan is going through difficult times, and it is not just due to Pak rupee devaluation or rising cost of production. There are several pain points, some gathered internally over time, and some brought on by government policies and circumstances.  Let us talk about three major pain points. I may add here that pharma industry also has a role in getting pain inflicted on it.  Pricing  Without doubt, it is the biggest pain point. And the main responsibil...

State of Healthcare in Pakistan – Part 5 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #788 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #788 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. Photo Credit: Anna Shvets Photo Credit: cottonbro studio Photo Credit: RODNAE productions Healthcare stands on three pillars: Healthcare related policies; Public and private health infrastructure; and availability of diagnostic and treatment tools, the last one also includes easy access to drugs. We shall review each of these in some detail to understand the entire healthcare landscape. The information is gathered from several sources, and references are given at the bottom. Public Health Infrastructure – Issues and Opportunities Public sector hospitals have bee...

State of Healthcare in Pakistan – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #785 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #785 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. Photo Credit: Alvaro Camacho Photo Credit: Joshua Mcknight Photo Credit: Mikhail Nilov Healthcare stands on three pillars: Healthcare related policies; Public and private health infrastructure; and availability of diagnostic and treatment tools, the last one also includes easy access to drugs. We shall review each of these in some detail to understand the entire healthcare landscape. The information is gathered from several sources, and references are given at the bottom. Healthcare related Policies – 1947 - 2009 The WHO defines health policies as decisions, pla...