Pharma lessons from India

Osman Khalid Waheed has been president/CEO of Ferozsons Laboratories since 1999. Under him, the company has expanded its portfolio of medical solutions for critical diseases by forging alliances with a number of leading international partners, including the US’s Boston Scientific, Argentina’s Bagó Group and Gilead Sciences. His partnership with Gilead has helped him bring its treatment for Hepatitis C, Sovaldi, to millions of patients in Pakistan at a fraction of its international price. In a joint venture with Bagó, he has set up BF Biosciences Ltd, the country’s first biotech pharmaceutical manufacturing company. Currently, his company is establishing an export-oriented vaccination manufacturing plant at the cost of $25 million. It will complete by November and can produce 750mn doses of Covid vaccination annually, three times more than the country’s needs. Besides Covid vaccination, it can also manufacture insulin and flu shots. Recently, he sat with Dawn for an interview on a wide range of issues from drug quality assurance to pricing to undersized markets to export, which have long affected the growth of Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry and forced many foreign companies to exit this market. Following are the excerpts of the interview: