ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health minister said on Wednesday a recent Pakistan-China health care investment conference had resulted in the signing of 22 agreements worth about $629.5 million, as Islamabad seeks to attract foreign investment, expand pharmaceutical manufacturing and boost exports.
The agreements, signed during the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical & Healthcare B2B Investment Conference held in Islamabad last week, cover vaccine production, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), medical devices, clinical trials and other pharmaceutical subsectors.
The event formed part of Pakistan’s broader efforts to deepen industrial cooperation with China and promote higher-value manufacturing as the country works to revive economic growth under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
“I would like to congratulate this nation... that in this two-day B2B conference... 22 companies have signed the agreement, and its worth is $629.5 million,” Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said in a televised media briefing.
He said the agreements included two in API manufacturing, eight in vaccine production, two in clinical trials, two in generic formulation injectables and eight in medical devices.
Kamal said Pakistan currently manufactures about 85 percent of its medicines locally but imports around 95 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used to produce them.
He also said Pakistan had prepared its first local vaccine policy to encourage domestic vaccine production, noting that the country currently imports all 13 vaccines included in its routine childhood immunization program.
Pakistan’s state media reported earlier this week that the country’s envoy to China Khalil Hashmi said the conference had generated more than $1.7 billion in overall investment commitments, including more than 120 memorandums of understanding, joint ventures and commercial agreements spanning biotechnology, vaccines, biologics, APIs, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, Traditional Chinese Medicine and clinical research.
Hashmi said follow-up efforts would focus on converting the signed memorandums into binding commercial contracts and long-term investment projects, with the aim of translating the commitments into operational factories, manufacturing facilities and sustained industrial collaboration between Pakistani and Chinese companies.
