Pharmaceutical sector supporting measures yet to be implemented

The supportive measures taken a decade back as backward linkage facilities to boost growth of pharmaceuticals sector are yet to be implemented due to apathy of the government.
The Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients Park (API Park) and the National Control Laboratory (NCL) are two major projects among other measures, sources said.
Among other steps taken to enhance export growth are reviewing the drug policy and doing bio-equivalence tests of pharmaceutical products under local arrangements.
Due to non-implementation of the taken measures, currently the exporters need to import API raw materials and go abroad for tests at higher costs.
For growing pressure from the stakeholders and professionals it is necessary to review the existing drug policy that would support the local and export markets.
Though the central bank has almost solved the problem of capital account transfers in export market, the main supportive measures are yet to see light.
According to a source in the Ministry of Industries (MoI), construction of the API Park is still going on despite missing the scheduled deadlines several times.
The source said the government's initiative of setting up API Park was taken a decade back aiming to establish a particular place for pharmaceutical industries provided with all types of logistics and infrastructural supports including central effluent treatment plant (CETP) at Baushia in Munshiganj.
He said the park was designed for manufacturing basic raw materials of pharmaceuticals to strengthen local production line at cheaper production costs to be competitive in the international market.
The MoI source said the full construction work of the pharmaceutical industrial park would be completed shortly.
The NCL is still not in a position to apply for the WHO (World Health Organisation) prequalification accreditation although the new lab was set as per the WHO guidelines with the funding support from the government and the World Bank (WB).
Currently the exporters need to test their drugs outside the country at huge costs as there is no internationally recognised testing lab in the country.
The NCL was supposed to create such facilities when it was initiated a decade back but setting up of the lab at Mohakhali is facing fund and manpower crises.
A source at the Directorate General of the Drug Administration said, "Due to fund and manpower crises we are not in a position to apply for WHO prequalification certification."
He said once we get the WHO certification, the drugs tested in the NCL would be accepted in most of the export destinations and this would save foreign currency now going outside the country.
Currently the NCL is in partial operation of testing insulin and vaccines manufactured by local pharmaceutical companies.
According to health officials, the final draft policy was supposed to be placed in the cabinet a week back but it is still in the Ministry of Health now.
A source in the drug industry said it is urgent to redefine drugs and include measures in the policy that would support the pharmaceuticals industry and its export market.
For boosting the industry's growth it was also the government's plan to arrange facilities for conducting bio-equivalence tests locally which is currently being done by the manufacturers and exporters abroad as per requirements of the importing countries.
The bio-equivalence tests are the ways through which a locally re-engineered generic drug can be compared with its inventing company's brand as to whether its doses are perfect enough to work in blood stream or not after many years since discovery.
A source at the Bangladesh Pharmaceuticals Society said if the measures are executed by the government, the pharmaceuticals sector will get a spur and it may be enough to face the post-2015 situation.
As per the WTO (World Trade Organisation) TRIPs agreement, Bangladesh would not be allowed to manufacture generics without paying royalty for the drugs whose patented rights are with the inventing companies.

[email protected]