Currently estimated to worth Taka 4,000 crore in turnover, the Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry is chiefly propelled by formulation business. Unlike India, there hardly exists an industrial segment for active pharmaceutical ingredients based on reverse engineering or the so-called process research.
The domestic industry of Bangladesh comprises a little more than 200 small and medium sized players. A dozen companies which come on the top of the spectrum, along with around ten multinationals, meet almost 95 per cent of the finished drugs and formulations requirement in the country. Most of the leading players have facilities to produce tablets, capsules, injectables, liquids, suspensions, sustained release dosage forms, dry powders metered dose inhalers, sterile ophthalmic formulations, creams and ointments.
Till two decades ago, MNCs were in full control of the Bangladesh pharmaceutical market. The arrival of Drug Control Ordinance in the year 1982 saw many of the MNCs leaving the market and the domestic industry gradually taking up the reigns.
Today, companies like Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Beximco, Acme Laboratories are among the leading domestic players which claim about 70 per cent of the total market. Other players include Orion, ACI, Albion, Eskayef, Incepta and JMI Bangla. The country sources the APIs from overseas capitals including China, India and Italy.
Total API import figures come around Taka 1,200 crore and about 40 per cent of which is sourced from India, according to official sources. Indian majors like Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy, Lupin Ltd, and JB Chemicals are among the leading exporters to Bangladesh.
As per the figures from Chemexcil, total exports of drugs APIs and other organic compounds come around Rs 30 crore and the rest is formulation products from all systems of medicine including Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Unani, Siddha and the like.
Ranitidine (Rs 7.9 cr), ciprofloxacine (6.1 cr), ampicillin (Rs 4.4 cr), norfloxacin (Rs 3.9 cr), sulphamethoxazole (Rs 3.8 cr), erythromycin (Rs 3.4 cr), omeprazol (Rs. 2.5 cr), salbutamol (Rs 1.1 cr), trimethoprim (Rs 0. 68 cr). loratidine (Rs 0.57 cr), fluconazole (Rs 0.52 cr), atenolol (0.5 cr) are the Chemexcil figures relating to some of the common APIs from India. Finished formulation imports, mostly constituting vaccines, latest anti-diabetics and anti-cancer drugs, account for about 5 per cent.
For the last year alone, the country registered around 15-20 per cent jump in export figures with tangible reflection on individual companies. For example, the Mumbai-based JB Chemicals Ltd which exports the APIs - diclofenac, metronidazole salts to Bangladesh has registered the figure Rs 40, 53000 in the year 2003, an impressive show compared to that the previous year which came little over Rs 30 lakhs. The trend is more obvious as we scan through the latest figures on formulations and APIs exported to the country.
According to figures available with Chemexcil, the total export of drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals from India to Bangladesh for the year 2002-'03 is cloaked at Rs 1,711,066,463 whereas it was Rs 1,389,654,505 in the financial year 2001-'02. The select APIs the country produces are paracetamol, diclofenac, ampicillin and amoxycillin etc. Moreover, Bangladesh recorded a Taka 18.74 million exports in the year 2002. Its major export destinations are Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Apart from these, the products reach over 50 countries, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, Middle East and Africa.