Pakistan's pharmaceutical exports fell 30.26 per cent to $319.01 million in the fiscal year 2025-26, down from $457.46 million the year before — a drop of $138.44 million (yaani about $13.8 crore dollars) — according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data reported by The News on Thursday. Export volumes also fell 26.14 per cent, from 112,517 metric tonnes to 83,104 tonnes.

Source: The News International, 22 Oct 2026 (PBS data)

The decline continued into the new fiscal year: in the first quarter of FY27, medicine export earnings fell a further 25.53 per cent to $73.30 million from $98.43 million in the same quarter a year earlier, while quantities dropped 31.40 per cent to 16,410 tonnes from 23,924 tonnes, The News reported. The figures exclude surgical goods and medical instruments, whose exports rose 8.8 per cent to $121 million in the same quarter.

Industry representatives linked the downturn largely to the disruption of trade with Afghanistan, previously one of Pakistan's biggest markets for medicines. Destination figures cited by The News show Afghanistan bought $155.68 million worth of Pakistani medicines in FY25, about 34.1 per cent of total pharma exports that year. Focus Pakistan, reporting Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) figures originally given to Business Recorder, likewise blamed the lost Afghan sales for most of the $138.44 million drop and said Kabul had barred Pakistani medicines from February, with Indian and Russian suppliers pursuing the Afghan market.

Source: Focus Pakistan, 22 Oct 2026 (PPMA / Business Recorder figures)

Former PPMA chairman Tauqeer-ul-Haq said the loss of the Afghan market had hit manufacturers hard and urged the government to resume trade in medicines, The News reported; Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal assured the industry the issue would be taken up with the relevant authorities. Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been halted since the deadly border clashes of October 2025 — Islamabad says it will not resume trade unless Kabul acts against militants operating from its territory, an allegation Kabul denies — and business groups estimate more than $2.5 billion in trade has been lost since then, CNA reported.

Source: CNA via MetaPress, 22 Oct 2026

30.26%fall in pharma exports, FY26
$319.01mFY26 pharma exports (yaani ~$31.9 crore)
$155.68mAfghanistan's FY25 purchases — 34.1% of the total
-25.53%further fall in Q1 FY27, to $73.30m
Why it matters

Medicines were one of Pakistan's few growing export earners, and Afghanistan took roughly a third of them. A full year of closed borders has wiped out that market, pushed exporters onto detours costing several times more, and — industry leaders warn — opened the Afghan medicine market to Indian and Russian suppliers instead.

What is solid

  • Pharma exports fell 30.26% in FY26 to $319.012 million from $457.456 million, on PBS data (The News).
  • Afghanistan bought $155.68 million of Pakistani medicines in FY25, about 34.1% of total pharma exports (destination figures cited by The News).
  • Exports fell a further 25.53% in Q1 FY27, while surgical-goods exports rose 8.8% to $121 million (The News).

What is only claimed

  • Why the market closed is disputed: Pakistan links the trade halt to militants operating from Afghanistan, which Kabul denies; the PPMA attributes most of the export drop to lost Afghan sales, while its former chairman also pointed to weaker competitiveness in some low-margin markets (Focus Pakistan). No resumption date has been announced.

Awaaz Punjab reported earlier on the wider cost of the same trade halt for Pakistani exporters shipping to Central Asia. Read the earlier story: Pakistan exporters face heavy losses as Afghan trade halt drags on