Pakistan Drug Group Claims Low Counterfeit Penetration

The PPMA, a Pakistani drugmakers' association, has claimed that a five-year, 100,000-sample study indicates that counterfeit drugs amount to just 0.4% of the country's pharmaceutical output. The group also reports that "sub-standard" drugs accounted for 2% of the sample. Unsurprisingly, this tally appears to contradict international reports that Pakistan's drug counterfeiting problem remains widespread.

In its 2005 Special 301 Report, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has continued to warn on Pakistani intellectual property rights violations, noting that "overall piracy and counterfeiting problems have not improved significantly over the past year." Commenting on the prevalence of drug copying, the report also claimed that "unfair use of commercial data submitted for marketing approval of pharmaceutical products" continues in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Pakistan's intellectual property laws are generally held to be lax and weakly enforced, PPMA officials insist that the country's drug counterfeiting problem is not as severe as in other countries. Significantly, the PPMA claims that 35% of all Indian drugs are counterfeit, while this level is reportedly 8% in Russia and the US, and 6% in Thailand.

The basis for such claims is unclear. However, given the widespread unavailability of branded innovative drugs and low consumer purchasing power, counterfeit products surely account for a significant share of Pakistan's US$920mn drug market.

Aside from counterfeiting, it is likely that semi-illicit copying is a far more serious problem. Local sources claim that roughly 20 multinationals license manufacturing operations to some of the 370 facilities registered with the government. Despite this apparent sign of multinational faith in the sector, a generally impoverished population is likely to continue to require cheap copy products, with around 80 government-owned production facilities currently providing low-cost medicines.