The measure will instantly hike prices of the medicines, which many of the companies now sell at a far less than the minimum rate.

But medicine traders have already started to sell these drugs at a higher price after coming to know about the development.

Experts say the price hike is unjust given that pharmaceuticals companies are already enjoying high profit margins with very low manufacturing costs.

But the companies argue that they have not increased drug prices for the last eight years while the taka has devalued greatly to make production costs higher. To make the situation worse, competition has led to undercutting prices, they argue, making the pharmaceuticals sector unhealthy.

"We are not going to increase the price but re-fix the current rates for all top twenty companies for some kind of medicines," SM Safiuzzaman, the president of the Association of Drug Industries, told The Daily Star. "The companies were losing money as they were trying to sell those medicines at a competitive price. But now we are going to fix the price so that all get the same price."

A recent visit to different pharmacy shops in the city revealed that many commonly used medicines of leading pharmaceuticals companies are either unavailable or already selling at a higher price.

"They have either stopped or reduced supplying those medicines for the last ten days," said Anawar Hossain, manager of the Lazz Pharma on the Mirpur Road.

As a result, the public is compelled to buy those medicines at a higher rate, even though the companies have not yet announced their own increased rates.

"I bought an antibiotic just three days ago at Tk 10 per piece. But today the medicine shops are asking for Tk 14 per piece," said Md. Anawar Hossain, a customer at Shahbagh, yesterday.

According to sources, leading pharmaceuticals companies, who control more than 80 percent of market share in the pharma-ceuticals industry, are planning to increase the price of anti-ulcer, anti-biotic, vitamin, minerals, cholesterol, diabetic, and hypertension drugs. All of these medicines are commonly consumed here, according to an expert physician of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

But the drug association president played the price-hike issue down, saying that smaller companies are free to sell their medicines of such types at lower prices.

"We do not have any problem if smaller companies sell their medicine at a lower rate," Safiuzzaman said.

Sources confirmed that they have finalised to re-fix the price of ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, dompr-edone, omeprazole, ceftriaxone, flupentixol, cephradine, cefixim, clopidogrel, carvedilol, multivitamin, multiminearal, and broma-zepam.

"It will not be more than six to seven types of medicine," said Safiuzzaman. "We are compelled to increase the price as the exchange rate against the dollar has become high and the price of active ingredients is also on the up," he said.

Meanwhile, medicine traders in different parts of the city confirmed that the leading pharmaceuticals companies have stopped supplying several types of medicine, including omeprazole, cyprofloxacin, ceptixosin, levofloxacin, ocarmin and proviten.

"They will supply again after re-fixing the price. We have heard they have adjusted the price but would announce on September 16 and start to supply," said a salesman of the Lazz Pharma.

Some traders have already increased the price of different medicines for lack of supply. "The price of ceftriaxone injection was Tk 180 but it has been selling at Tk 280 in the market," said a trader from the Shahbag area.

But Safiuzzaman has said his association has decided to sell the ceftriaxone injection at Tk 300 per piece.

Medicine traders added that other medicines, whose price pharmaceuticals companies may re-fix at a higher price, are already selling at a rate Tk 1-5 higher.

The medicine of omeprazole group used to sell at Tk 3 per piece, but it has shot up to Tk 5. The price of omeprazole tablet has been fixed to sell at Tk 4 by the leading twenty companies, sources said.

On the other hand, the price of ciprofloxacin used to range between Tk 8 and Tk 14. The price of ciprofloxacin for popular pharmaceuticals companies was around Tk 10. But the price is going to be fixed at Tk 14 for all of them, sources said.

According to pharmacology experts, prices of medicine in Bangladesh are already high.

A leading pharmacology expert, citing an example, said the generic cyprofloxacin antibiotic, which is prescribed for urinary track infections, enteric fever and respiratory infections, has been selling at different prices in the market. The same drug, Hiflosin, produced by Hudson Pharma, sells at Tk 7.5 per piece, while ciprocin, produced by Square Pharmaceuticals, sells at Tk 14 per piece. Neofloxin, produced by Beximco Pharma, sells at Tk 12.

But another company, General Pharmaceuticals, provides the same medicine to Dhaka Medical College and BSMMU at Tk 2.5 per piece.

"We tested the medicine and came to know that the medicine has standard quality," said a professor from the BSMMU.

"So, we can assume the production cost of that medicine is lower than Tk 2.5," he said. "Just two months ago the exact cost of cyprofloxacin was Tk 1.67, and some companies have been making a profit of not less than Tk 12 for per piece," he pointed out.

Experts say there is no reason for such widely fluctuating prices. Assistant Professor Sayedur Rahman, a prominent pharmacology expert from the BSMMU, said that all pharmaceuticals company are compelled to follow the current Good Manufacturing Product (GMP) and pharmacopoeia, a technical manufacturing process.

"They just follow the rules and produce the medicine. Medicine is such a thing that they don't have the option to mix extra medicine or extra chemicals to increase the quality of the medicine. So, the production cost should be more or less the same as well as the sale price," he said. "I don't see any reason for different prices of drugs as the price of active ingredients has been reducing in these days."

Other sources added that the price of medicine is unusually high in Bangladesh because regulators of the drug control directorate do not negotiate with the pharmaceuticals companies regarding prices.

"The pharmaceuticals companies put the indicative price, and regulators just approve it without negotiating with the company people, which makes the price unusually high," said a small pharmaceuticals company owner, requesting anonymity.

"So the big company puts a high price on the medicine and spends money on physicians to prescribe them and make a hefty profit," he said. "We are lagging behind in the race as our capital is less," he added.

Arguing that point, an official from a leading pharmaceutical company said that the company's per unit cost is high as their establishment cost is very high.