With the growing demand for biotechnology-based pharmaceutical products both in domestic and foreign markets, investments by the local manufacturers in the industry are increasing every year, sources said.
According to leading investors, in the year 2014 a total of Tk 5.0 billion was invested in this sector to produce vaccines, insulin, hormones, enzymes, coenzymes, pre-fill syringe and many other anti-cancer drugs.
In the year 2013 the total investment was worth Tk 4.5 billion and with a 10 per cent growth it stood at Tk 5.0 billion in the year 2014.
According to a leading company source, the laboratory set up by the government to test and maintain quality of the vaccines and insulin and other biotech products has opened a new window for investment by the manufacturers.
Earlier the manufacturers used to test the biotech products in foreign lands at massive costs as there was no controlling body in the country to check quality.
Currently Popular, Square, Incepta, Beximco, Eskayef, Healthcare and many other leading companies are producing hormones, vaccines, insulin and some other biotech-based pharmaceutical products.
As per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, the local manufacturers are exporting biotech-based pharmaceutical products to many Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries.
Although primarily the export amount is small, it is certainly a breakthrough that Bangladeshi drugs manufacturers are producing high-tech products and also exporting those to many countries, said an EPB official.
However, Vice-president of Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) Tariqul Islam said the local market for biotech products is growing at this moment but after a certain period it would be saturated.
He said consumers of biotech products are limited in number; so the market share would not increase much for alluring more investments.
If there are new generation biotech products that can replace chemical drugs, it might create new investment opportunities.
The BAPI leader said at this moment the bio-tech drugs testing laboratory is not equipped enough to maintain quality of the growing number of products.
He said the National Control Laboratory (NCL) is still being used only by a few drugs manufacturing firms and it generally remains idle due to lack of workforce and trained personnel.
He said the government is yet to recruit adequate manpower and allocate necessary funds for the NCL which can play a vital role in development of the biotech industry in the country.
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