Bangladesh looks upbeat about support from all least developed countries (LDCs) at their meeting in Geneva next month on getting the transitional period for pharmaceutical products extended by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The LDC members meet in Geneva in March with only ten months left until December this year to lobby for getting the time for trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) extended for pharmaceutical products.
Currently Bangladesh, as an LDC, can manufacture all types of drugs without paying royalty. After the TRIPs deadline it will either have to stop production or pay royalty to the drug inventing companies against their patented products.
Among the LDCs Bangladesh feels the necessity of TRIPs extension as it has the highest investment in the pharmaceutical sector.
The local pharmaceutical sector is meeting more than 97 of the demand domestically with the export volume also increasing every year.
According to sector insiders, around 1,400 generics are being manufactured locally, of which a good number still have patented rights enjoyed by the inventing companies.
Speaking about the issue, senior secretary of the ministry of commerce Hedayetullah Al Mamun said a few days back an official team, led by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, made a tour to Geneva.
He said there was a decision that the LDCs would go for collective efforts in getting the time extended.
He said at the 10th Nairobi WTO Ministerial Conference in December this year the LDCs would put pressure on the developed countries to have the time for manufacturing pharmaceutical products without paying royalties extended.
He said before the Nairobi conference Bangladesh would keep contact with other LDC members for their support.
He said in the recent Geneva meeting there were discussions with other LDCs relating to extension of the transitional period and, as part of it, a meeting was supposed to be held among LDCs in March next.
The WTO has already extended the general transitional period up to 2021 and this covers all the products manufactured by the LDC members.
But the period for pharmaceutical items has not been extended. Bangladesh is the only country that needs to get the time extended as it has the strongest pharmaceuticals base among all the LDCs.
According to sector insiders, except Bangladesh the other member countries may not feel the pressure to get the transitional period extended for pharmaceutical items.
The senior secretary said: "During his recent visit our minister was assured by ministers of other countries that they would work collectively and create a strong pressure in this connection at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in December."
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