The pharmaceutical industry is battling to restock its inventory despite a lack of vital life-saving medications and other surgical instruments as the economic crisis intensifies and affects the healthcare system, reported on Saturday by different news sources. Pakistan’s pharma industry faces ‘worst crisis’.
The economic crisis has not spared drug companies, who are struggling to maintain stocks of essential life-saving drugs that are crucial to keep many alive. This is due to a number of crucial factors, including the refusal of commercial banks to issue new Letters of Credit (LCs) due to a shortage of US dollars.
Leading pharmaceutical firms are reportedly trying to get raw materials to create pharmaceuticals while being forced to curtail production while people suffer in hospitals as experts warn of the economy slipping into near-paralysis.
Major hospitals’ doctors are obliged to halt performing surgery due to ongoing shortages of anaesthetics and medical supplies.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to an eight-year low of $4.3 billion, and negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are at a standstill, prompting concerns that the nation could go bankrupt.
Because of this, the nation is unable to purchase essential imports like medicine, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), a number of vaccinations, immunoglobulins, and biological products for the treatment of cancer and other disorders.
Less than a two-week supply of anaesthetics is left in the operation theatres, which is crucial for carrying out very delicate surgeries like heart, cancer, renal, and stomach surgery.
Additionally, the raw materials the pharmaceutical industry is left with will only be usable for four to five weeks.
Pakistan’s pharma industry faces ‘worst crisis’ as medical supplies like coronary stents, cannulas, syringes, and even gloves run low in hospitals like Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute & Research Centre and other cardiology and cancer centres, doctors are unable to provide uninterrupted care.
On the other hand, representatives of medical companies have pleaded with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to take their worries and demands seriously right now and give the state bank and commercial banks advice on how to address their problems.
They issue a warning that the crisis could become even worse as a result of the raw ingredients needed to produce different medicines being held up at the Karachi port due to a lack of money.
Numerous shipping containers filled with necessities including food, raw materials, and medical supplies have been sitting at the port in Karachi for weeks.
It should be mentioned that the nation went through a similar situation last year when financial difficulties caused many pharmacy shelves to be empty. The businesses had unsuccessfully pushed for quick fixes.
Currently, the crisis has resulted in the drug companies having fewer employees and paying lower wages.
It is important to note that, in addition to Europe and other countries, pharmaceutical companies also import roughly 47% of their raw materials from China and 40% from India.
