The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) demanded price review of the government-controlled drugs, which remained stalled since 1994.

The Drug Administration controls the prices of 117 essential drug items, but the government is supposed to review their prices every year based on inflation and exchange rates in accordance with the pricing policy.

The manufacturers of controlled category of drugs were facing huge losses due to rise in the prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients on the international market, said a statement of BAPI yesterday.

The prices of pharmaceuticals are hardly controlled anywhere in the world excepting Bangladesh and India. In Bangladesh, such control and irrational pricing of drugs have discouraged the local manufacturers to produce some essential drugs where their selling price does not cover even the production cost

The BAPI said, "This has encouraged illegal entry of imported products and the patients are paying 15 to 20 times more."

For example, the approved price of Phenobarbitone is Tk 0.30 per tablet compared to Tk 1.92 in India and Bangladesh, but patients are buying Indian substitutes of the same item at Tk 5 as it comes through illegal ways, it also said.