At Searle, revenue growth is now about volumes, not just prices

After a bruising decade of price controls and currency shocks, Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry has been enjoying a long-awaited upswing. For The Searle Company Ltd, one of the country’s leading drug makers, that boom is no longer just about charging more for the same pills. Management is now openly pitching a future where growth comes from selling many more packs, at home and abroad, rather than relying on repeated price resets.

That shift in tone was evident at Searle’s latest corporate briefing in late November, where the company disclosed that its revenue had grown at a compound annual rate of 17% over the past five years, and by a brisk 28% year on year in the first quarter of FY26. Crucially, executives told investors they are targeting about 23% growth in volumes and “slightly lower than 40%” in value terms – signalling that, unlike the recent past, the bulk of incremental sales is expected to come from more boxes shipped, not merely higher prices per unit.

The message is clear: the one-off benefit from drug price deregulation has largely been booked. The next leg of the story depends on whether Searle can outgrow the market by increasing its physical footprint in pharmacies, hospitals and export destinations.