Pakistan’s pharmaceutical retail market recorded sales of Rs1.049 trillion over the 12 months ending March 2025, showing a 20.62% increase in rupee terms and a 23.14% rise in US dollar terms.
According to IQVIA Pakistan’s Q1 2025 Market Access Tracker, much of this growth, nearly 69%, was due to price hikes rather than an increase in actual consumption, raising questions about medicine affordability.
The number of units sold grew by only 3.63% year-on-year, reaching 3.77 billion units, while the five-year volume growth stood at just 5.49%.
The pharmaceutical industry posted a four-year compound annual growth rate of 19.09% in rupees but only 4.05% in dollars, reflecting the impact of currency devaluation and pricing shifts.
Local pharmaceutical companies led in volume, selling 2.91 billion units with a 4.98% growth rate. Multinational firms, despite a slight 0.72% drop in unit sales (totaling 856 million units), still posted a strong 19.04% increase in overall sales value.
October 2024 emerged as the peak sales month, bringing in Rs. 96.48 billion, Rs75.39 billion from national companies, and Rs21.09 billion from multinationals.
Out of the total, 87 companies exceeded Rs. 1 billion in annual sales, making up 96.52% of the market. The top 20 companies alone contributed Rs. 450 billion, securing a 42.92% market share and growing by 23.28% over the year.
Mid-sized firms earning between Rs10–40 billion added Rs348 billion (33.18% of market share), while companies making over Rs5 billion generated Rs124 billion, with domestic names like Hilton, OBS, High-Q, PharmEvo, and Ferozsons leading the pack.
Among multinationals, Abbott, GSK, Haleon, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk stood out, with 7 of the top 10 firms achieving double-digit growth.
A total of 636 new medicines hit the market, 623 from local firms and just 13 from multinationals, contributing Rs. 7.15 billion in fresh revenue.