‘Almost all medicines now available in local market after deregulation’

Almost all medicines required by Pakistani patients are now available in the market following the government’s decision to deregulate prices of non-essential drugs, drug administration officials, pharmaceutical industry leaders and health experts said on Wednesday.

They claimed the move has eliminated widespread drug shortages, disrupted black-market profiteering, and restored patient access to previously unavailable treatments. Pharmaceutical manufacturers, speaking to journalists in Karachi, said deregulation has reversed years of critical shortages that had left patients scrambling for life-saving medications.

“For a long time, critical medicines like insulin, tuberculosis treatments, and even over-the-counter painkillers such as Panadol were missing from pharmacies because their government-fixed prices were far below production cost,” said Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) Chairman Tauqeer ul Haq.

He added that due to inflation, currency devaluation, and rising global raw material costs, it had become economically impossible to produce medicines at outdated rates. “A tablet that cost Rs3 to the patient couldn’t be manufactured even at that price. Deregulation allowed the same tablet to be priced at Rs6, which brought it back to the market,” he explained.

Health experts also endorsed the policy shift, saying it helped counter the black market and ensured the availability of quality medicines. “Availability has drastically improved since deregulation. Medicines that were once only available at five to ten times the actual price through smuggling are now on pharmacy shelves at reasonable rates,” said Zahid Ali, a Karachi-based pharmacologist.

Deregulation, initiated at the end of 2023, applies only to non-essential medicines. Over 460 essential drugs remain under government price control.

According to Tauqeer ul Haq, this dual-pricing mechanism aligns with international best practices and aims to create market competitiveness while safeguarding affordability for critical medicines.

Even provincial drug administration officials across all four provinces and federally administered areas confirmed that nearly all medicines were now available in the market, adding that this has significantly reduced the circulation of counterfeit drugs, as shortages that previously created space for fake medicines have largely been eliminated.

A joint survey by the PPMA and Pharma Bureau and a recent report issued by IQVIA, found that post-deregulation prices for the top 100 pharmaceutical brands increased by an average of 16.5%. However, industry officials clarified that much of this increase was due to prior hardship price adjustments and new product introductions—not deregulation alone.

For context, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in June 2025 showed urban medicine prices rose by 13.05% and rural prices by 15.3% as per data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, still lower than inflation in many other sectors.

Officials noted that the availability of previously scarce drugs, such as anti-epileptics, psychiatric medications, and certain cancer therapies, has significantly improved. Unit sales of medicines have also risen, with IQVIA reporting a jump in volume growth from just 0.8% in 2023 to 3.6% this year.

Tauqeer ul Haq emphasized that the deregulation policy is also encouraging growth across the pharmaceutical supply chain—from manufacturing to exports. “It is helping revive confidence, attract new investment, and create jobs in quality control, logistics, and marketing,” he said. With exports currently standing at $700 million, industry leaders believe this figure could rise substantially if regulatory consistency is maintained.

He also pointed to new opportunities for local production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), which Pakistan currently imports at 90% dependency. “With policy stability and public-private collaboration, we could develop our API sector and even export in the future,” Haq said.

While acknowledging concerns over price hikes, both industry and health professionals reiterated that the bigger risk lies in the unavailability of genuine medicines. “The costliest medicine is the one you can’t find when you need it,” said one industry executive. “Deregulation has turned that around.”