Chinese companies ready to step up pharmaceutical cooperation with Pakistan

BEIJING — A number of Chinese pharmaceutical companies have expressed their intention to cooperate with potential Pakistani partners.
“Having supplied more than 20 million doses of vaccines manufactured in Pakistan, we plan to deepen cooperation with this country,” CanSino’s Xin Chunlin said at the CPEC B2B conference held recently. At the conference organized by the Board of Investment (BOI), Pakistan, suppliers of original new medicines and Chinese traditional medicines, including Luye Life Sciences Group, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Zhongyi Pharmaceutical, Guangzhou Qixing Pharmaceutical, also expressed their intention to cooperate. with potential Pakistani partners.
“Facing the common challenge of the ongoing pandemic, uniting with Pakistani brothers will bring benefits to both peoples,” Xin said in an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).
CanSino is a renowned Chinese pharmaceutical company that launched the locally produced PakVac-branded CanSino COVID-19 single-dose vaccine in Pakistan last year. According to Ms. Ghazala Parveen, Head of Biological Production Division, National Institute of Health, Pakistan, PakVac is producing over 3 million doses per month, exceeding the initial expectation of 1 million and reducing the cost by 25%.
Meanwhile, Pakistan welcomes investment in the medical sector. “Pakistan’s pharmaceutical sector is ripe for investment,” Muhammad Radimuddin, USP’s senior technical adviser, told the conference. Comprised of over 700 manufacturers and thousands of distributors, Pakistan’s $4 billion pharmaceutical market grew at a CAGR rate of 12.5%.
“The potential for pharmaceutical exports with the right partners is exponential,” Muhammad said. He also estimated that the global generic drug market is expected to reach around $700 billion by 2025, this is an opportunity for the Pakistani industry to take a bigger share.
A case in point is that during the pandemic, Pakistan was able to start local production and export Remdesivir, a key COVID-19 drug, to 16 countries through joint ventures with foreign companies. Muhammad and Xin coincide in thinking that more such cooperation can happen. In addition to attending the CPEC B2B conference, CanSino also met with Chairman Dr. Arif Alvi this week and briefed him on the latest developments. On March 10, data published by in medRvix, the health science preprint server operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, proved that the third-generation AD5-Ncov vaccine in aerosol has higher protection as a booster. against Omicron.