There is much to be said about the state of the pharma industry in Pakistan, and this column has done its best to highlight some of those issues in the past (Read: “DRAP: Unhealthy negligence,” Published May 25, 2016; “The pharma blues,” Published March 11, 2016). Today’s article, however, will focus not on the usual discussion of price regulation and stunted exports, but on ‘Access Programs’ and their potential benefits to the country and its populace.

As the name suggests, Access Program is the marketing of an expensive drug in a developing country at a significant enough discount to make it affordable. It can either be subsidized by the company itself or with the help of donors. One such recent – and highly rare – example of an Access Program in Pakistan is Gilead’s Hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, which is being marketed by local pharma giant Ferozsons at one percent of the drug’s international price ($1000 per pill). These Access Programs are, despite their low price, not loss-making. An industry source confirmed this in the case of Sovaldi as well.

Conservative estimates suggest that around ten million people suffer from Hepatitis C in Pakistan – the second-highest incidence anywhere in the world. Treatment has always been expensive, not to mention intense. There was thus a huge vacuum between demand and affordability that needed to be bridged.

Bringing Sovaldi into Pakistan has been a master stroke on the part of Ferozsons; not only has the company’s balance sheet and stock price blossomed, but the public at large has benefited from this game-changing medicine, which exhibits little to no side effects.

Such innovation in medicine is impossible to come by in Pakistan. The companies here are not involved in research and development, including the big-name multinationals; in an interview with BR Research, Paramount Pharma CEO Nasir Qureshi said that the reason MNCs charge high prices is to make up for the research and development expenditure, of which there is none in Pakistan! The need is thus to bring in the innovative drugs from abroad, and to bring them in at an accessible price. But the government is doing nothing to this end. Moreover, the patent protection laws are incredibly weak in Pakistan, which makes it unattractive for companies to market their patented drugs here, be it under Access Programs or otherwise.

In Pakistan, there are no insurance plans, no public-private partnerships, no government funding or incentives for bringing in innovative drugs at affordable rates, so it’s all left to the private sector. We thus need the Gileads of the world to take leaps of faith and bring their revolutionary products into Pakistan.