Searle Pakistan subsidiary to begin contract manufacturing of biologics
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
The company will be working on behalf of Martin Dow and Atco Laboratories, though it has not disclosed which products it will be manufacturing for them
In Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry, the more sophisticated end of the industry — biologics, biosimilars, monoclonal antibodies and other injectable therapies produced through biotechnology — has mostly been the preserve of imports, licences and multinational partnerships.
Searle appears to be betting that this is about to change.
The Searle Company Ltd has informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange that its indirect subsidiary, Nextar Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, has entered into separate arrangements with Martin Dow Marker Ltd and Atco Laboratories Ltd for the potential manufacture of biological products at Nextar’s production facility. The announcement, made in the formal language of stock-exchange disclosure, was short. It did not name the products. It did not disclose financial terms. It did not specify volumes, timelines, margins, technology-transfer arrangements, or whether Nextar will be manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients, finished dosage forms, or undertaking some narrower form of sterile filling, packaging or release testing. But the strategic direction was unmistakable.
Reference Link:- https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/06/15/searle-pakistan-subsidiary-to-begin-contract-manufacturing-of-biologics
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
