It is a piece of welcome news that the cabinet in its last meeting approved the draft of the National Drug Policy that provides for the constitution of a national drug regulatory authority.
The policy would soon be notified through a gazette, media reports quoting cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said Tuesday last.
Other salient features of the new drug policy include: (a) the regulatory authority will oversee not only the quality of medicines produced locally, but also that of raw materials and machinery imported by the drug manufacturers; (b) registration of any medicine will be made mandatory prior to its manufacture or import and marketing; (c) production and marketing of spurious and date-expired medicines will be made a punishable offence; (d) the government will update once in a year the prices of medicines and the prices will be posted on its website; (d) the government has raised the number of essential drugs from the existing 117 to 285 and the prices of these medicines will be fixed by the government; and (e) drug stores will not sell medicines without prescriptions by registered physicians barring 39 over-the-counter (OTC) items.
While briefing the newsmen on the outcome of Monday's cabinet meeting, Mr. Alam said the latest drug policy has been formulated keeping in mind the requirements of international buyers of Bangladesh's pharmaceutical products.
It is important that the local drug manufacturers make greater penetration into the international market and fetch more foreign exchange for the country. Nobody would mind if the government ensures incentives to the drug manufacturers to facilitate their increased presence in the global pharma market.
The new drug policy is the third of its kind since 1982 when the first one was announced, paving the way for emergence of the local pharmaceutical companies in a big way. In fact, the announcement of the 1982 drug policy was a turning point for the country's pharmaceutical sector. One of the basic objectives of that policy, however, was to ensure availability of quality medicines at low cost to the vast majority of the population.
It is, thus, important to take into cognizance how far that basic goal has been met against the backdrop of the successes of the country's pharmaceutical sector. Such a review is all the more necessary when the people have to bear more than 64 per cent of the medical expenses out of their own pockets and the cost of medicines has major share in that expenditure. In fact, a large segment of the population spends nearly100 per cent of medical expenses from their own pocket since they procure the services of private hospitals, clinics and medical practitioners.
The government in 2005 introduced a new drug policy 'updating' the one announced in 1982. The drug manufacturers might have felt the difference between the two policies, but not the consumers. Rather they have been made to pay more for the medicines and the pace of increase in the prices of medicines has only intensified of late. The drug manufacturers have been raising the prices of their products ignoring the purchasing capacity of poor consumers. The prices of some medicines have been hiked by even 60 to 80 per cent within a short period.
The new drug policy states that the government will fix the prices of essential drugs, numbering only 285. The people have to buy hundreds of other drugs and there is no government control over the prices of those medicines. There has to be some mechanism to control their prices.
One of the major reasons for raising the prices of drugs by the manufacturers is the money they spent on promotional activities, including bribing the physicians. Besides, they have to employ a large army of medical promotion officers for the purpose. The government should opt for a practice followed in many other countries. It should make it mandatory for the doctors to write on their prescriptions the generic names, not brand names, of medicines. Doctors of some major private hospitals in Dhaka have been following this international practice. That is why no medical promotion officer is ever seen within the vicinity of those hospitals.
Another issue has not been explained by the cabinet secretary. That is about the role of the Drug Administration (DA) that is until now has been acting as the sole regulator in the matters of drug manufacturing, marketing and quality control. In fact, the DA would turn into a redundant entity after the formation of the proposed national drug regulatory authority.
The government would have to adopt or update laws and rules and ensure their proper enforcement if it is really interested in enabling the people to reap dividends out of the new drug policy. Getting laws and rules enacted is not a big deal for the government, but their enforcement is. Hopefully, authorities concerned would keep this hard truth in their mind.
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