Drug prices and poor man's ability
Monday, 24 November 2008
Shamsul Huq Zahid
Country's pharmaceutical sector, which used to be dominated by the foreign pharmaceutical companies before the promulgation of the Drug Control Ordinance in 1982, has achieved impressive as well as enviable growth over the last two and a half decades.
The Tk. 30 billion industry, in addition to increasing its share in the local market to 90 per cent, has been successful in making a modest entry into the global market. The Bangladesh drug manufacturers are now trying to take advantage of the opportunity offered under the TRIPs of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) until 2016 and export drugs and medicines, mainly to the poor developing countries having insufficient drug manufacturing capacities.
Some local drug manufacturers having installed the state-of-the-art manufacturing plants are capable of competing with drug manufacturers of even developed countries. A couple of such companies have already received quality certification from the drug regulator in the UK, thus, making them eligible to export their products to the UK and other European Union countries.
Some companies have been making their bids to enter the US market. They have, reportedly, sought certification from the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA). It may not take too long a time for the Bangladesh drug manufacturers to enter the coveted US market.
With the implementation of the planned API Park soon, the Bangladesh pharmaceutical sector is expected to make further progress. The present interim government has tried to address some of the problems relating to the export of drugs. It may not be far away that the sector would become one of the leading foreign exchange earners for the country.
However, in the backdrop of all the gains and successes achieved by the country's drug manufacturers, the consumers have nothing to cheer about except for the fact that they are buying the drugs and medicines produced in their own country. The prices of most of the locally produced medicines have recorded substantial rise and the poor and low income people cannot afford to buy them. They are forced to buy low-priced drugs manufactured by the little known companies. These companies taking advantage of the lax monitoring by the Drug Administration are producing and marketing substandard drugs.
However, the Bangladesh Association Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) often grumbles that its members have to sell drugs at prices fixed more than two decades back. Most consumers would find the BAPI claim about prices untenable since they had seen upward adjustment in prices of drugs and medicines on a number of occasions during last one decade.
Whether such enhancement of drug prices was done with the approval of the government or not is not known to the people. What they have witnessed that the price of every medicine has increased. The increase in case of some medicines, the antibiotics in particular, has been phenomenal. However, this is not to say that the drug manufacturers should act like philanthropists and sell their products below the cost price.
Before, there was a governmental mechanism to control prices of drugs and medicines. But that does not work anymore. Such official control over prices of goods produced by any particular sector in these days of free market does not seem befitting. Yet the need for overseeing the prices of drugs and medicines by a particular government body cannot be rejected outright in a country like Bangladesh where poor and low income people constitute the bulk of the population. The government cannot afford to provide them free-healthcare. But it should at least ensure that the poor and low income people get genuine medicines at affordable prices.
The lowest price of an effective antibiotic capsule is Tk. 12. A full course of antibiotic medicine costs not less than Tk. 144. Can a poor day labourer or rickshaw-puller afford to buy such expensive medicine? What happens most of the time is that he or she buys a one or two capsules at a time and skips the rest of the course as soon as he or she feels better. In most cases, the poor and low income people who generally reside in slums buy low-cost substandard drugs which, in most cases, are found to be ineffective.
The government and the drug manufacturers do need to find out ways to help the poor needing drugs and medicines. The government sells rice at subsidized prices to help the poor survive. It remains also the responsibility of the government to provide healthcare to the poor either free of cost or at low-cost. The public health facilities being inadequate are failing to meet such need even fractionally.
Meanwhile, this has been quite frustrating that the government has failed to infuse dynamism and efficiency into the Drug Administration and make it capable of handling an emerging pharmaceutical sector.
As far as the quality control of local medicines is concerned, it seems, the people have no other choice but to remain dependent on the wishes of the drug manufacturers in the absence of regular check and supervision by authorities concerned. Fortunately, most producers of drugs and medicines until now have been scrupulous in marketing quality drugs. But this is not anyway an ideal situation.
The Drug Administration deserves a thorough shake-up immediately. It has become a hotbed of corruption and inefficiency. No government in the past bothered to cleanse it. Unfortunately, the present interim government, which is about to end its declared tenure, also has not felt the need for streamlining this vital institution. However, the people would expect that the next elected government would do something about it.
Country's pharmaceutical sector, which used to be dominated by the foreign pharmaceutical companies before the promulgation of the Drug Control Ordinance in 1982, has achieved impressive as well as enviable growth over the last two and a half decades.
The Tk. 30 billion industry, in addition to increasing its share in the local market to 90 per cent, has been successful in making a modest entry into the global market. The Bangladesh drug manufacturers are now trying to take advantage of the opportunity offered under the TRIPs of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) until 2016 and export drugs and medicines, mainly to the poor developing countries having insufficient drug manufacturing capacities.
Some local drug manufacturers having installed the state-of-the-art manufacturing plants are capable of competing with drug manufacturers of even developed countries. A couple of such companies have already received quality certification from the drug regulator in the UK, thus, making them eligible to export their products to the UK and other European Union countries.
Some companies have been making their bids to enter the US market. They have, reportedly, sought certification from the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA). It may not take too long a time for the Bangladesh drug manufacturers to enter the coveted US market.
With the implementation of the planned API Park soon, the Bangladesh pharmaceutical sector is expected to make further progress. The present interim government has tried to address some of the problems relating to the export of drugs. It may not be far away that the sector would become one of the leading foreign exchange earners for the country.
However, in the backdrop of all the gains and successes achieved by the country's drug manufacturers, the consumers have nothing to cheer about except for the fact that they are buying the drugs and medicines produced in their own country. The prices of most of the locally produced medicines have recorded substantial rise and the poor and low income people cannot afford to buy them. They are forced to buy low-priced drugs manufactured by the little known companies. These companies taking advantage of the lax monitoring by the Drug Administration are producing and marketing substandard drugs.
However, the Bangladesh Association Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) often grumbles that its members have to sell drugs at prices fixed more than two decades back. Most consumers would find the BAPI claim about prices untenable since they had seen upward adjustment in prices of drugs and medicines on a number of occasions during last one decade.
Whether such enhancement of drug prices was done with the approval of the government or not is not known to the people. What they have witnessed that the price of every medicine has increased. The increase in case of some medicines, the antibiotics in particular, has been phenomenal. However, this is not to say that the drug manufacturers should act like philanthropists and sell their products below the cost price.
Before, there was a governmental mechanism to control prices of drugs and medicines. But that does not work anymore. Such official control over prices of goods produced by any particular sector in these days of free market does not seem befitting. Yet the need for overseeing the prices of drugs and medicines by a particular government body cannot be rejected outright in a country like Bangladesh where poor and low income people constitute the bulk of the population. The government cannot afford to provide them free-healthcare. But it should at least ensure that the poor and low income people get genuine medicines at affordable prices.
The lowest price of an effective antibiotic capsule is Tk. 12. A full course of antibiotic medicine costs not less than Tk. 144. Can a poor day labourer or rickshaw-puller afford to buy such expensive medicine? What happens most of the time is that he or she buys a one or two capsules at a time and skips the rest of the course as soon as he or she feels better. In most cases, the poor and low income people who generally reside in slums buy low-cost substandard drugs which, in most cases, are found to be ineffective.
The government and the drug manufacturers do need to find out ways to help the poor needing drugs and medicines. The government sells rice at subsidized prices to help the poor survive. It remains also the responsibility of the government to provide healthcare to the poor either free of cost or at low-cost. The public health facilities being inadequate are failing to meet such need even fractionally.
Meanwhile, this has been quite frustrating that the government has failed to infuse dynamism and efficiency into the Drug Administration and make it capable of handling an emerging pharmaceutical sector.
As far as the quality control of local medicines is concerned, it seems, the people have no other choice but to remain dependent on the wishes of the drug manufacturers in the absence of regular check and supervision by authorities concerned. Fortunately, most producers of drugs and medicines until now have been scrupulous in marketing quality drugs. But this is not anyway an ideal situation.
The Drug Administration deserves a thorough shake-up immediately. It has become a hotbed of corruption and inefficiency. No government in the past bothered to cleanse it. Unfortunately, the present interim government, which is about to end its declared tenure, also has not felt the need for streamlining this vital institution. However, the people would expect that the next elected government would do something about it.