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The floodgates thrown open
Our Bureau, Mumbai | Thursday, November 20, 2003, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

With a number of progressive policy initiatives, the Bangladesh government is, for the first time, taking the drug sector into its core industry focus now. The government, which has recently announced three major policy recommendations in the areas of pharmaceutical investment, manufacturing and exports, has considered this sector as one of the growth engines in the years to come.

Realizing the threat of the emerging product patent regime in the API sourcing countries, the government is currently trying hard to encourage the bulk drug production in the country by inviting local and foreign investors to this sector to reduce the high import dependency. Allowing 100 per cent foreign investment in the pharma sector, increasing the forex limit for drug exporters and setting up basic infrastructure for foreign pharma companies with proven API technology are the three most important policy decisions the national government has announced for promoting the drug industry in the country recently.

The newly proposed bulk drug Industry Park at Chittagong is a key project undertaken by the government to support the local pharmaceutical industry. The project in which the local and foreign pharmaceutical companies are invited to set up bulk drug units, will hopefully help the country to utilize the least developed country (LDC) status to attract pharmaceutical companies from India and China.

The import dependency for bulk drugs in the country is so severe at present as drug technology driven companies are few. The country, which has 220-odd licensed drug formulation plants, has only 7 API manufacturing facilities at present. The local pharmaceutical industry, with serious shortage of bulk drug as well as engineering and other allied sector to supplement its huge requirement, depends on the imports from India, China, Italy, UK and few other European countries heavily.

However, the local formulation companies could meet almost 95 per cent of the requirement of the BT 4000 crore national market. Apart from the local market, there are at least 8 companies those have manufacturing facilities approved by USFDA and other European regulatory agencies, regularly exporting to global pharma market. The country's drug export has currently touched BT 200 crore.

According to S M Shafiuzzaman, president, Bangladesh Aushad Shilpa Samity (Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries - BAPI) and Managing Director, Hudson Pharmaceuticals Limited, the recent policy announcement of the Government to raise the foreign exchange limit for exporting companies from US$ 30000 to US$ 1,00,000 has really helped them to strengthen their global marketing efforts and thereby increase the exports significantly. This year another 12 companies have started exports from Bangladesh. Since the combined capacity of the industry for the pharma formulation is huge, a number of companies are currently in the process of entering into exports and few have recently got approval from UNICEF as its global as well as local supplier of pharma products, Shafiuzzaman said.

According to industry sources, the formulation industry in Bangladesh currently grows at the rate of 22 per cent. With this estimate, the expected business in year 2005 is 50,000 million Tk.

Today, Bangladesh pharma industry is dealing with USA, India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, European Union, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Bhutan, Nepal, Yemen, Mauritius, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tazakistan, Kenya, Tunisia, Maldives, etc for both raw material sourcing and export of finished products.

Shafiuzzaman added that with government initiatives, the trend in the overall pharma scenario, seems much favourable to the country as the domestic pharma industry as well as the companies from neighboring countries like India, China and even MNCs have shown interest to put in investments in the bulk drug manufacturing as they will be benefitted immensely with the vast potential the country can offer even in the future, he said.

The local entrepreneurs are capable and willing to invest and collaborate with suitable foreign partners in order to develop the existing API manufacturing facilities. However, since there is strict quality awareness and the prevailing competition among the foreign supplier especially from China, the industry is still not sure about the viability of setting up own facilities for bulk and other allied products as the imports may prove economical. But the serious question concerns the industry is the reliability.

In Bangladesh, BAPI as the apex and the only pharmaceutical trade and promotion body, has been very actively working on the industry development programmes to enhance the existing capabilities and also to promote the country''s industrial opportunities among the developed world by attracting prospective collaborators in terms of technology, product sourcing, infrastructure etc.

"At present, our major focus is on increasing our bulk drug manufacturing capacity and the technology to attain self-sufficiency. On the formulation front, our industry has achieved substantial growth by now. So that, we are even capable of catering to other markets including regulated markets besides domestic demand, " Shafiuzzaman says.

The Association currently represents the great majority of the pharma manufacturers who produce about 95 per cent of the country's total requirement of pharmaceuticals.

"I think the first pharmaceutical event, a conference-cum-exhibition organized by the Association in Dhaka early this year, has really helped the government machinery to look forward to this happening sector seriously," It has helped the industry as well to learn from the areas of technology and process know-how, research and development, contract manufacturing, biotechnology and information technology. Similarly, we go an opportunity to show our potential and willingness to the outside world to collaborate with us for mutual growth," he said.

India, as a close business partner to the country, has been transacting with it since long and still continues to be the major trade partner in the areas of bulk drugs, pharma machinery and other allied sectors. The total pharma exports of India to Bangladesh have been increasing steadily over the years. During 1999-2000, India exported drugs to Bang-ladesh to the tune of Rs 934.1 million. It grew to Rs 1361. 6 million in 2000-2001 and showing a further growth in current year as the first six months'' exports have touched Rs 1262 million.

The bulk drug majors from India namely Dr Reddy''s Laboratory, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy, Aurabindo and many others are already in advance stages of setting up bulk drug manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh, besides a large number of companies including JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark, Ajanta Pharma, Fabicare, Zydus Cadila, Cadila Pharma are trading with the country in bulk drugs in big volumes.

Presently top pharma companies in Bangladesh are also in the process of getting into bulk drug production with collaborative technology, technology transfers and joint venture basis. The large-scale players in the Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry currently include Square Pharma, Beximco, Alma, Apson Chemicals, FEI, Araneta, General Pharma, Hudson Pharma and SKF among others.The MNCs that have a major presence in the country''s pharma sector are Aventis, Pfizer, Novartis and Astra Zeneca.

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