To say anarchy reigns supreme in the country's pharmaceutical sector involving particularly the pricing of drugs is an understatement. Factory price as represented by Producer Price Index (PPI) is a measure of 'the average change over time in the prices domestic producers receive for their output.' Here the emphasis is on domestic producers whose output may be both goods and services. It was known as wholesale price index in the US until 1978 and by 1982 all Producer Price Indexes were reset to 100 as the base. Following this monthly inflation-(in rare cases deflation) adjusted prices producers receive, Bangladesh also determines factory-gate prices for domestically produced commodities and services. Since it does so, the wide gap between the PPI and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of essentials, remarkably medicines, defies logic. The lead news on the front page of Sunday issue of this newspaper has focused on the mysterious anachronism between the PPI and the retail prices of different drugs.
The latest PPI, as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics finds, had remained unchanged at 141.8 for 14 months until May last since April 2023. If this is the case, the retail prices of drugs were supposed to remain stable as well. But in reality, soaring prices of all kinds of medicines, particularly those in higher demand, have inflicted a blow below the belt of consumers at a time they are writhing under the relentless commodity inflation. But is it credible that the PPI of the pharmaceutical industry has stayed at the same slot for long 14 months? This is bogus. Actually, data generated by the pharmaceutical companies are a casual exercise with no relations to reality. There is a dubious way of raising prices of drugs by way of a secret agreement with the buyers of their products. Here the impression is that the pharmacists and others working as middlemen in between like agents or medical representatives are to blame. In fact, that is hardly the case. Accusing fingers are pointed at the pharmaceutical companies themselves.
However, the manipulation of drug market aimed at earning outrageous profit is counter to medical ethics. Prices have recorded rises from 7.0 per cent to 140 per cent. In some rare cases, the hike has been double the price or 200 per cent. The monopoly market could be established courtesy of the massive corruption and malpractices that have become the hallmark of the health sector with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) getting degenerated from top to bottom.
It is time all these changed for the better. Bangladesh may at this stage not aspire to be in the league of the select nations that provide free medical treatment and medicines but at least it can get its primary acts such as bringing order in health services and pricing in drugs together. To do so, the first task would be to root out corruption from the two organisations overseeing the matters of health services and pharmaceutical industry. The endemic corruption for which the DGHS and the DGDA are notorious, has been responsible for leaving the entire health sector in a shambles. Therefore, the cleaning of the Augean stables must start from the top down the system.
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