The New Nation - Internet Edition

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

The Directorate of Drug Administration controls prices of 117 essential drug items. Even though according to the Pricing Policy, the government is supposed to review prices of controlled drugs every year based on inflation and change in exchange rate, but the government has not reviewed the prices of this categories since 1994. The manufacturers of controlled category are facing huge loss due to increase in prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients in international market

Prices of pharmaceuticals are hardly controlled any where in the world except Bangladesh and India. In Bangladesh, such control and irrational pricing of drugs has discouraged the local manufacturers to produce some essential drugs where their selling price does not cover even cost of production. This has encouraged illegal entry of imported products and the patients are paying 15-20 times more.

For example, the approved price of Phenobarbitone is Tk 0.30 per tablet as compared to Tk 1.92 in India and Bangladeshi patients are buying Indian substitutes of the same at Tk 5 coming through illegal means. It is clearly evident that such irrational control of prices has resulted in losses not only to the manufacturers but also to the government of Bangladesh and more importantly the poor patients of the country.