The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked the commerce ministry to take necessary steps to be a self-sufficient Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)-producing country aiming to reduce dependency on large-scale import of pharmaceutical raw materials, officials said.
To this effect, Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Moshiur Rahman has recently requested Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to provide required assistance and make policy on the issue.
"The World Trade Organization (WTO) committee on intellectual property rights extended a waiver for pharmaceuticals until 2031. Conditions will be imposed gradually and flexibly from 2021 next. It is high time to take actions utilizing the opportunity maximum," he said.
When asked, a high official of the Ministry of Industries said, "The commerce ministry is discussing the issue with the stakeholders concerned to expedite the construction work of API Park in the country. In this connection, a high-level meeting will be held at the MoC. The government is taking it very seriously and working on the issue."
"The government is taking API issue seriously. A policy has been prepared in this regard," Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Shubhashish Bose told the FE.
He mentioned that lead time would reduce sharply including cost if "we are self-sufficient in API production locally instead of import".
While inaugurating the 23rd Dhaka International Trade Fair, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared pharmaceutical products, including their raw materials, as the 'Products of the year 2018'.
Presently, the proposed API Industrial Park project is being implemented in Munshiganj for producing active pharmaceutical ingredients. Besides, two parks are being built in Bagerhat and Khulna under private initiative.
A source concerned said most of the APIs are imported from other countries, mainly from China, used by the pharmaceutical industry. Other APIs were about two/three times cheaper than those produced in Bangladesh, a source concerned said.
Some entrepreneurs are producing APIs on a small scale and they are producing third generation medicines using APIs. The APIs are cheaper than other countries.
There is an ample amount of potato starch and corn starch and molasses in the country which are used for producing biological products.
Currently, Bangladesh exports its medicines to over 100 countries, including the US, the UK, the EU and Australia. Export earnings from the pharmaceutical sector were US$ 70 million in 2015 while export earnings of India and China were US$ 15 billion and US$ 124 billion respectively.
It will be possible to increase the export volume of pharmaceutical items to US$ 1.0 billion within two or three years, according to the PMO data.
The PMO letter said it will take three or five years to establish a new industry and expand existing industries and then one/two more years will be needed to get approval for APIs and export them to other countries.
"A huge import of pharmaceutical raw materials is a burden for the country and it is also a matter of national security concern. So, the government should take proper measures to produce APIs," an expert said.
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