Drugmakers to get a boost

The government has started the process of allotting plots at the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) industrial park, which promises to propel Bangladesh to the next stage as a drug exporter.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation, the developer of the park for API or pharmaceutical raw materials, has already invited applications from local companies for plots in the industrial enclave. The deadline for applications is March 27.

Work to develop the API industrial park began in 2008 on 200 acres of land in Munshiganj district by the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The park was built under the public-private initiative with the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI).

All formalities, including plot allotments, will most likely be completed by June this year, said SM Shafiuzzaman, secretary general of the BAPI.

The park's 42 plots will only be allocated to BAPI members and the association has already received applications from 32 companies for a total 57 plots, he said.

Since the demand is higher, BAPI will now scrutinise applications on the basis of the firms' ability and make recommendations for plot allocations.

Thanks to the API industrial park, Bangladesh's pharmaceutical sector will be able to produce raw materials on a large scale, Shafiuzzaman said.

At present, the local pharmaceutical industry, which churns out about 8,000 generic drugs, has to import the majority of the raw materials.

Although several local firms currently manufacture the pharmaceutical raw materials, production is not enough to meet the demand, said industry insiders.

The production of API will not only ensure self-sufficiency but will also offer price competitiveness in the global market, according to Mollick Mahmood Hossain, managing director of Novelta Bestway Pharmaceuticals.

Thanks to accreditations from the drug regulatory authorities of the US, the UK, Australia, Brazil and Canada, the local companies export to a total of 117 countries.

Being a least-developed country, Bangladesh has been exempted from the obligations to implement patents and data protection for pharmaceutical products until January 2033 by the World Trade Organisation.

“Since we have the waiver, we will be able to make the patented drugs and their raw materials and export them. We will also be able to make the raw materials of the new medicines that are being developed,” Shafiuzzaman said.

Hossain, in an article in the publication marking the eighth Asia Pharma Expo in Dhaka, said the major raw material supplying countries such as India and China are not legally able to produce the patented raw materials due to the WTO restriction.

“We will also be able to export the API easily,” he added.

Shafiuzzaman said at least half of the companies that will get plots in the API park will go into operation by 2018. “It will create many jobs,” he added.

“We are ready. The government has developed the land and built roads to support the establishment of plants,” said Abdul Bashet, project director of the industrial park.

The entrepreneurs will be required to establish the central effluent treatment plant as per the contract with BAPI.

The government has so far spent Tk 189.46 crore on the park, according to Bashet.

The local pharmaceutical industry, which now has 198 firms, meets 98 percent of the domestic requirement for medicines.