Promoting local production and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) industry in low and middle income countries (LMICs): impact on medicines access and policy

ABSTRACT

The success of universal coverage depends on ensuring that patients have access to medicine. Encouraging local production of medicines in developing countries can provide better access to medicines. In addition to determining the quality of pharmaceutical goods, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) also determine their cost. According to market forecasts, the active pharmaceutical ingredients market is expected to increase from USD 193.15 billion in 2023 to USD 285.29 billion by 2028. Pakistan largely depends on India and China for its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient requirements. It was feared that a shortage of medicines would result from Pakistan's government suspending all trade with India on August 9, 2019. To improve health security in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan has introduced an API promotion Policy in 2022. Financial and non-financial incentives have helped many countries develop their API industries like China, India, and Bangladesh. The current domestic API market of Pakistan is around 150 million $. After the introduction of the policy, the existing units are increasing their capacity while eight new API units are in the process of establishment. Through local production of APIs and intermediates, Pakistan can improve its health security by learning from the experiences of neighbouring countries, especially China.

KEYWORDS:

• Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient
• API
• policy
• Pakistan
• incentives
• industry
• health security

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

MAAK conceptualised the idea, conducted the literature review, and wrote the initial draft. AR synthesise data and revise the manuscript. All contributors checked and accepted the final version of the manuscript.