Pharma Veterans

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 4 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #595 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #595 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 shall mark 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 star...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT - Part 3 - Asrar Qureshi's Blog Post #594 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #594 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 shall mark 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 star...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #593 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #593 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 shall mark 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 star...

Pakistan Pharma Industry SWOT – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #592 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #592 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 shall mark 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 star...

Drug Abuse in Pakistan 6 – Last Part – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #591 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #591. 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. I would like to quote results of one more study and then we move to sum up our discussion on the topic of drug abuse in Pakistan. This 2018 study was conducted on addicts admitted in the rehabilitation centers of Islamabad. A total of 102 male patients were interviewed, whose mean age was 28.4 years (+ 9.8). 14% were aged between 15-20 years. 35% initiated drug abuse during teen years. 60% were skilled, and 47% with secondary education, and 8% were students. Heroin was the most abused substance (48%) followed by Cannabis (28%). Mean duration of substance abuse was 1 to 5 y...

Drug Abuse in Pakistan 5 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #590 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #590. 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. I would like to quote from a very recent article (published December 14, 2021) by a student at National Defence University, Islamabad, Ms. Palwasha Khan. “With the recent withdrawal of US troops and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the takeover of the Taliban, the smuggling of narcotics into Pakistan has further increased. In Pakistan, the prevalence of drug abuse is increasing at an alarming rate. However, risk factors, which are increasing vulnerability toward addiction, remain largely elusive.” The most used drugs are heroin and marijuana, with cannabinoids becoming more popular. O...

Drug Abuse in Pakistan 4 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #589 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #589. 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. Abuse of psychotropic medicine, particularly benzodiazepines, goes back to many years. Valium (diazepam) and Ativan (lorazepam) were long abused by those who knew about them. The Pharma companies always maintained that these drugs were not addictive, rather only habit-forming. However, the habit was almost as strong as addiction, and many people got hooked on to them. Then came Lexotanil (bromazepam) and it replaced earlier products quickly. Two patterns were easily discernible: normal people got a prescription for anxiety and/or sleeping difficulty, they found relief and stuck to it;...