The government has no immediate plan to intervene in the country's non-essential drugs market despite fixation of higher prices of those by the manufacturers, officials said.
Manufacturers often raise the prices of non-essential drugs themselves in the absence of any government control on the market, chemists and druggists said.
Currently the drug manufacturers are fixing prices of more than 1,250 non-essential drugs themselves. As a result some 90 per cent of the drugs are being sold at higher prices and every year the prices are being increased by 60 to 100 per cent, they said.
Of more than 1,400 drugs, prices of 117 are controlled by the government under essential drugs list.
According to the chemists and druggists, the manufacturers increase prices of non-essential drugs twice a year and in last two years prices of such drugs have been increased by 70 to 130 per cent.
Vice President of Bangladesh Chemists and Druggists Association (BCDA) Abdul Hai said a good number of essential drugs are not available in the market due to low profit.
In the backdrop of shortage of essential drugs in the market, manufacturers produce non-essential ones as an alternative to those. Owing to this, they can fix higher prices at their sweet will.
As per drugs rule, the manufacturers are empowered to fix prices of non-essential items.
Talking to the FE, a drug store owner said the manufacturers quote higher prices for the newly invented drugs as they have to spend a good amount of money for promotion and marketing.
Director of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) Salim Barami said, "Apart from 117 essential drugs, we have no control over price fixation of other products."
He said, "We know prices of many drugs are higher but the government has no plan to control the same at this moment."
He said in many cases it is not possible to monitor prices of essential drugs sold in stores due to manpower shortage in the DGDA.
It is frustrating that in the Tk 120 billion local pharmaceuticals market there is no strict control and monitoring by the government in fixing drugs prices, sources told the FE.
They said the manufacturers should not be given the power to fix prices as drugs must be made available to all the people at reasonable prices.
A senior professor at the pharmacy department of the Dhaka University said the government should also control prices of the non-essential drugs apart from essential ones for the sake of public health.
He said the manufacturers spend a lot of money in drugs promotion and marketing but they try to get returns through exorbitant prices paid by the common people.
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