The government’s decision to scrap the interim government’s Essential Medicines List 2026 and Drug Pricing Method 2026 has been welcomed by the pharmaceutical industry but raised concerns among public health experts over access to affordable medicines.
The decision was taken at the first Cabinet meeting of August amid concerns over the process through which the two policies were formulated.
Experts fear that reverting to the previous system could weaken the government’s ability to regulate medicine prices and ensure the availability of essential drugs, potentially increasing the financial burden on patients.
The number of medicines on Bangladesh’s essential medicines list has changed significantly over the years. The 1994 policy included 117 medicines, while the number increased to 285 in 2016. The interim government further expanded the list to 295 medicines in 2025.
The expansion faced criticism from the BNP. On August 13 last year, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir described the interim government’s pharmaceutical policies as “opaque and one-sided” and questioned the absence of representatives from the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries in the task force and technical subcommittee of the Drug Control Committee involved in preparing the list.
On June 30 this year, the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries wrote to the health minister seeking an urgent meeting to review the policy.
The interim government prepared the two policies on January 8, marking a major attempt to reform the country’s essential medicines and drug-pricing system after more than three decades.
Former additional secretary Mahbub Kabir Milon said regulating medicine prices is already a difficult task for the government, as officials have to assess complex pricing and markup information submitted by pharmaceutical companies.
“If government oversight is withdrawn, it is easy to imagine the pressure companies could place on consumers,” he said, citing his experience with the prices of heart stents and probiotics for children.
He also cautioned against making changes to the essential medicines list without careful consideration.
Public health experts say the issue is particularly important because patients bear a large share of healthcare costs in Bangladesh, making government regulation crucial to keeping essential medicines available and affordable.
Public health expert Dr M Mushtaq Hossain said the policies should not have been scrapped altogether.
“If there were problems, they could have been corrected through consultations with relevant stakeholders. There was no need to withdraw the entire framework,” he said.
He also questioned the decision to return to the 1994 list, saying the country’s healthcare system, medical science and pharmaceutical sector have changed substantially over the past three decades.
Public health expert Benazir Ahmed said weaker government oversight of essential medicine prices could make treatment increasingly difficult for poorer patients.
<Why the policies were scrapped>
According to a Cabinet Division notification, the government remains committed to ensuring safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines. However, the National Drug Advisory Council was not consulted before the two policies were formulated.
Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 2023, the government is required to seek the council’s advice before preparing an essential medicines list.
The government said the failure to follow this legal requirement led to the cancellation of the 2026 list and pricing method. A writ petition challenging the legality of the two measures is also pending before the High Court.
The National Drug Advisory Council was formed on June 29 under the 2023 law.
<New list, pricing mechanism in the works>
Although the 2026 list has been scrapped, the essential medicines list introduced under the 1994 order, along with the existing government price-control mechanism, will remain in force for now.
Health Secretary Kamruzzaman Chowdhury told reporters that the previous list had been reviewed and that a new essential medicines list would be prepared.
He said it was too early to say whether the new list would contain more or fewer medicines than the previous one.
A new committee will also be formed to recommend changes to medicine prices, including increases or reductions where necessary, he said.
The government says the new process will aim to protect consumers from additional financial pressure while maintaining competition in the pharmaceutical market.
Experts, however, caution that the success of the new framework will depend on how effectively the government balances the interests of manufacturers with the need to keep essential medicines accessible and affordable for patients.
