The top pharmaceutical companies in the country have allegedly been racking up billions of taka in profits, taking benefit of the drugs authorities’ limited powers over controlling drug prices in the market.
For nearly 20 years, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) authorities have no power in fixing drug prices, except for only 117 generic drugs.
With more than 264 allopathic pharmaceutical companies producing 22,000 kinds of brand drugs from 1,500 generic items, the companies have plenty of opportunities to set exceedingly higher prices for drugs, compared to the actual production cost.
Earlier in 1994, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a letter in this regard, but no changes have been made to the rules yet.
Sources said the interests of the ordinary people stayed neglected, as most members of the DGDA’s price control committee were themselves owners of pharmaceutical companies.
This reporter found in his investigation that OpsoninPharma Limited supplies an antibiotic called Ceftriaxone to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for Tk34 and Tk68 (for 1g and 2g doses), but sells the same medicine in the market for the retail price of Tk120 and Tk220 respectively.
Ceftriaxone is a third-generation antibiotic often used for the treatment of pneumonia and meningitis. The DMCH consumes a total of around 500,000 vials of Ceftriaxone every year.
Earlier for the 2012-13 fiscal year, OpsoninPharma Ltd also secured work order for supplying Ceftriaxone to the DMCH at Tk34.95 per vial, while this year they curtailed the price by Tk0.95 per vial to retain its work order.
The next lowest bidderInceptaPharmaceuticals Limited reportedly quoted Tk35.95, while drug suppliers Square, whose brand variety of Ceftriaxone is sold for Tk180 in the market, had quoted Tk143.
Ceftriaxone is just one example among thousands of drugs that are overcharged by the companies, drugs sector insiders said, claiming that the companies can still earn profits when they supply Ceftriaxone for just Tk34.
Seeking anonymity, a number of responsible sources within the health sector, told the Dhaka Tribune that all medicine-making raw materials available in the international market were “not of the same quality.”
They also said most drug-makers in Bangladesh generally imported the raw materials from India and China, the prices of which would vary depending on the expiry dates.
The company that was assigned to supply Ceftriaxone with two years of shelf-life, might lower its own production costs by buying materials that would last exactly for that period of time, the sources said.
A senior official at OpsoninPharma Ltd, preferring not to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday that they were supplying Ceftriaxone to the DMCH atlower prices, as part of an indirect promotional tool.
The company’s strategy was to persuade the new doctors to prescribe Opsonin’s variety of Ceftriaxone, by displaying the effectiveness of the drug at the hospital. This method was easier than marketing representativespromoting different drugs by door-to-door campaigning to the doctors, he said.
Officials involved with the procurement of drugs at the DMCH claimed that the company had been regularly exporting drugs and that it had a good reputation in the market.
However, some DMCH doctors, seeking anonymity, said companies could actually supply drugs at low wholesale prices because the DMCH procured in bulk amounts every year.
They also said the market prices of many of these drugs were a lot higher because the drug-makers had to compensate for the amount they spent on marketing.
Most companies preferred going for the least of profits when supplying drugs to the DMCH, as successfully carrying out a work order for the country’s biggest healthcare facility allowed the companies to attract more international export work orders, the doctors said.
SelimBarami, a director at the DGDA, told the Dhaka Tribune:“We don’t fix the drug prices of different drug companies, expect 117. But there is a price control committee to monitor whether the prices are reasonable or not.”
ProfessorMuniruddin Ahmed, Pro Vice-Chancellorof East West University and also a specialist on drugs,claimed that the companies had been earning a lot of money by fixing prices as they desire. He however added that proper monitoring of drugs prices would ensure the lowering of prices.