A three-day, regional pharmaceuticals exposition began in city Thursday to display latest pharmaceutical products, manufacturing and packaging machinery by both local and international companies.
The Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) in collaboration with GPE Expo Pvt Ltd organised the Asia Pharma Expo-2018, 10th of its kind, at International Convention City, Bashundhara in Dhaka.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim inaugurated the expo as the chief guest.
State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Zahid Maleque, Directorate General of Drug Administration director general Md Mustafizur Rahman, BAPI secretary-general SM Shafiuzzaman and BAPI adviser and Incepta Pharmaceuticals managing director Abdul Muktadir attended the programme, among others.
Delivering his speech, the minister said that the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry is considerable as the country has been exporting pharma products to more than 127 countries including the USA and European countries.
To facilitate the sector, the construction of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) park is going on 200 acres of land in Munshiganj district near the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, he said.
Some industrial plots out of total 42 have already been allotted to companies, he added.
Mr Nasim said the country's pharmaceutical companies had built world-class manufacturing plants and they would be able to grab more shares on the global medicine market.
He also asked the industry people to continue their businesses as usual and not to get frightened due the political situation.
Speaking at the programme, BAPI adviser Mr Muktadir said that there are around US$ 2.6 billion market of medicine and other pharma products in the country, of which around 98 per cent is met by local companies.
Calling Bangladesh one of the emerging countries on the global pharmaceutical market, he said that though the country exports mostly low-priced drugs at present, local industry has already gained the capacity to produce high-priced medicines.
He also noted that the future of the country's medicine industry is bright as around 40 universities in the country have been producing pharma graduates.
BAPI secretary-general said the government had been providing 20 per cent cash incentives to drug manufacturers on the exports of raw materials.
The production of API will increase further with the completion of the ongoing park, he added.
Over 600 pharmaceutical companies from 30 countries, including the USA, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and host Bangladesh, are participating in the expo.
The participants will exhibit a wide-range of products and services related to pharmaceutical processing and packaging machinery, biotech lab equipment, API and bulk drugs plants and manufacturing, pharmaceutical formulation and contract manufacturing at the three-day event.
The international expo will remain open from 10:00am to 6:00pm every day until tomorrow (Saturday).
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