Pakistan's unregulated drug industry

Contaminated medicines have killed 100 people, exposing a lack of regulation in the pharmaceutical sector.



Pakistan's government is being criticised for not doing enough to control the country's pharmaceutical industry. A hundred people have died, and 400 others are in hospital, after taking contaminated heart medicine.

Pakistan has a number of domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers, making generic versions of drugs and selling them at prices that are more affordable than their overseas counterparts.

While they are supposed to be regulated by the government, a recent devolution of the health ministries to the provincial level has meant that most are not monitored at all.