High cost of raw materials and absence of required testing facilities are holding back the growth of pharmaceutical exports from Bangladesh, industry insiders and experts have said.
According to them, the locally produced drugs are facing tough competition in the export market due to higher costs of production and testing certifications.
Currently Bangladeshi exporters need to import raw materials by paying higher duty compared to that of other exporting countries and they are not also getting incentives. As a result, the local exporters are facing uneven competition in the international market.
Due the central bank's relaxation of rules to transfer fund has helped the exporters to take money in foreign lands for bearing expenses in testing, product registrations, marketing and setting offices. But if the problems relating to high cost of raw materials and testing facilities are addressed it would help enhance export growth.
Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI), president Salman F Rahman said pharmaceuticals export will get momentum in the coming days as more than a dozen plants of international standards now exist in Bangladesh.
He said currently more than 500 generic drugs are registered in the regulatory and other markets and many are in the pipeline waiting for bioequivalence and other tests being conducted in foreign lands at huge costs.
The BAPI president said, "As representatives of the world's highly regulated and other market provide positive reports after visiting our plants, export in those markets is increasing and exports would increase further within a couple of years", he said.
He said a good number of local pharmaceutical companies have already achieved the United Kingdom's Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (UKMHRA) and other regulatory market certifications and if there are local testing facilities for export market and raw materials are available at cheaper prices export would get a boost.
According to Md. Nasser Shahrear Zahedee, president of Bangladesh Pharmaceuticals Society (BPS) except a few the plants of most companies exporting drugs are yet to become eligible for getting regulatory market certifications.
He said the problem in raw materials and testing facilities could be removed but the major problem relates to lack of proper supervision in quality control in the domestic market.
The BPS president said, "I am frustrated that Bangladesh despite getting the transitional period opportunities in the WTO for manufacturing all kinds of generics, export did not increase until now as per expectation."
According to Export Promotion Bureau, the export performance in the first three months of the current fiscal was $19.80 million which is 2.01 per cent higher than the corresponding period of July-September, 2013-14 ($19.41 million).
himelfe74@gmial.com
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