Medicines need to be cheap and potent

The prices of many locally produced drugs, including many in the essential category, are fixed according to the will of the drug companies and in doing this the companies are in most cases guided by crass profiteering motive. The prices of these drugs are sometimes artificially high and bear no relationship to their lower production costs.
This practice is causing two adverse consequences. On the one hand, it is defeating the egalitarian goal of the national drug policy which is to provide essential medicines to the people at affordable or reasonable prices and, on the other, harming the long-term development of the local pharmaceutical industry itself from the availability of cheaper equivalents of these drugs coming through imports or smuggling.
Therefore, it is necessary for the government to regulate or exercise its influence over the fixation of drug prices. The companies, under the free market system, may be allowed to go on setting drug prices but they should be clearly warned and obliged to do so -- reasonably and ethically-- consistent with actual production and other costs. The relevant departments of the government should have the powers to conduct proper investigations regularly to confirm that the prices set by the companies are reasonable. If not, then it should tell the companies to revise prices downward to reflect their rational prices. Perhaps, the government should consider suggesting the maximum retail price of drugs in some cases and there should also be mechanisms to get the companies to comply with such suggestions.
Proper quality control of drugs manufactured by local companies has also become a serious concern. The relevant government departments should both extensively monitor the production processes of the local drug companies and strengthen their capacities for doing so. The quality control aspects of the local drug companies have become also important in the backdrop of these companies gradually finding an export market for their products. If for the reasons stated above the companies acquire a bad name abroad, the same would be a damper for export growth in a prospective field. Thus, quality control of the local drug companies must be ensured to safeguard the interest of local consumers as well as to promote export.

Asheque Ali
Dhaka Cantonment