Why Pakistan imports almost 90% of its APIs — and the push to make more at home
Pakistan makes most of its finished medicines but imports nearly all its active ingredients, mostly from China. The case for localisation, and what it needs.
Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry has a structural imbalance: it makes nearly 85% of the finished medicines the country uses, but still imports almost 90% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and other raw materials. Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal gave those figures at the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical & Healthcare B2B Investment Conference in Islamabad in July 2026.
Where the imports come from
| Source of pharmaceutical imports, FY24 | Share |
|---|---|
| China | 58.6% |
| India | 13.5% |
| Korea | 4.5% |
| Germany | 4.2% |
| Italy | 3.6% |
The figures come from a December 2025 policy paper by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), which put total pharmaceutical imports at PKR 304.1 billion in FY24, up 7.1%.
The localisation push
The July conference, organised by SIFC, the health ministry and DRAP, brought about 160 Chinese pharmaceutical companies together with around 340 Pakistani firms to discuss joint ventures, technology transfer and advanced manufacturing. The minister argued that more domestic production would improve medicine security and ease pressure on foreign exchange.
The IPRI paper sets a mid-term goal of 20–30% API localisation and proposes 5–10 year tax exemptions for API production, alongside faster registration and annual GMP audits.
What to watch
API plants need scale, chemistry skills and reliable utilities, and the payback is long. The paper places API promotion on an 18–36 month timeline — so partnerships, not quick wins, are the realistic path.
Meet API makers, importers and excipient suppliers — including 45 Chinese companies — at Pharma Asia 2026.
