The Bangladeshi firm, Beximco Pharma, is in the process of drawing up plans to enter the US and European markets by 2008. Beximco has already floated on the UK Alternative Investment Market in October 2005.
Beximco started its first exports to Sri Lanka from 1st January 2006, with six versions of four generics. The company planned to increase it imports to Sri Lanka, following a visit by Sir Lanka's Health Minister to the firm's plant at Tongi, in Gazipur, on 27th January 2006, Beximco reported. Beximco said the Sri Lankan minister had shown a particular interest in the company's high-tech products, such as inhalers, nasal sprays, suppositories, injectables and IV fluids. Beximco commented that it plans to gain registration in Sri Lanka for another 28 drugs.
In March 2006, Beximco announced it was also concentrating on selling products to Burma. The company began trading with Burma in 1997, and has since become a major player in the country's pharmaceutical market. During a three-day pharmaceutical product show in Burma, Beximco commented that it was planning to expand its activities in the country. The company plans to take advantage of the Doha Declaration exempting the 50 least developed countries from the TRIPS agreement until 2016.
Beximco said that this provision gave pharmaceutical companies based in the least developed countries an opportunity to take advantage by exporting large volumes of medicines to other least developed countries, such as Burma. In a seminar at the show, Beximco's Chief Executive Officer, Nazmul Hassan, highlighted the impact of the TRIPS agreement on Burma's import-based pharmaceutical sector, noting that Bangladesh could become a major source for generic copies of patented drugs for Burma.
Hassan explained that because Beximco was a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in a least developed country, it could legally reverse-engineer patented products and sell them in the domestic market as well as in other least developed countries, non-WTO member countries and countries where the originator product is not patented. Hassan added that Beximco would transfer technology and research to Burmese drug manufacturers if any expressed an interest. The three-day show was jointly organised by the Bangladeshi Export Promotion Bureau, the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries and the Bangladesh Embassy in Burma. It was held in Burma's capital from 10th March 2006 until 12th March.
Prior to the Burma event, and demonstrating Beximco's abilities to reverse-engineer drugs, the company launched a number of new products to its domestic market in February 2006. Amongst the products launched were the firm's 10 mg domperidone tablet product, which it markets under the brand name Deflux DT. Domperidone is used for the relief of symptoms of heartburn, nausea and indigestion, and Beximco noted this was the first time the drug was available in Bangladesh. Following this, the company launched another four products, which it noted had not previously been available in Bangladesh. These included Beximco's 0.25 mg and 2 mg ropinirole tablets, which the firm markets under the brand name Repitol.