Local pharma makers fare well

Local pharmaceutical companies have fared well amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic due to increased sales and export of hand sanitisers and face masks, according to a senior official of the drug administration on Wednesday.

"When the Covid-19 made its outbreak, there were just three face mask manufacturers and seven hand sanitiser producers in the country," said Maj Gen Mahbubur Rahman, director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration.

"Within a short period, the pharma industry of Bangladesh came forward and took initiative," he said.

"Today, more than 70 companies are producing hand sanitisers while more than 30 others are producing face masks and exporting them to other countries like the US," Rahman added. As of yet, there is no drug that can cure Covid-19 infections.

But Bangladesh's pharma sector took to boosting immune systems by manufacturing different vitamins, zinc tablets and other relevant medicine and making those widely available in the country at moderate prices, he said.

Rahman was addressing a webinar on the "Evolution & Success of Pharmaceutical Sector in Covid-19 Management", organised by the Bangladesh-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BGCCI).

One of the major challenges faced by the industry during the pandemic was in sourcing raw materials for medicine, said Nazmul Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) and managing director of Beximco Pharmaceuticals.

"Our medicine ingredients are mostly sourced from China and India but because of the Covid-19 situation, India banned the export of all raw materials related to Covid-19 medicine while China went into complete lockdown," he said.

This led to a severe scarcity of medicine but still, the local pharma industry procured the ingredients at double the regular price while the cost of finished products remained the same, Hassan said in a statement from the BGCCI.

Hassan also said Beximco paid for the vaccine six months before it was approved, giving it the highest priority. The risk paid off and now the major challenge was ensuring vaccine supplies are adequate, he said.

"So, we are trying to find alternative sources along with AstraZeneca for 30 million more doses of vaccines. We are very confident that within the next few months we will come up with some good news," he added.

Abdul Muktadir, chairman and managing director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals, said many countries do not have a fully developed pharma industry.

"Although officially we are still a least developed country, we have a fully developed pharma industry. Within a short time, our pharma industry will be at the same level of any developed country's pharma industry," he said.

Muktadir also said there were 265 registered pharmaceutical companies, of which 213 were in operation, including the importers.

Currently, 97 per cent of the products are produced locally while the rest imported.

The current market size of the industry is $3.09 billion and it has an annual growth rate of 13.17 per cent.

Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Bangladesh's ambassador to Germany, said prospects of exporting pharmaceutical products to Germany was bright as it was the 4th largest market in the world for pharmaceutical products.

He also said the export of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical products to Germany and other countries amounted to around $150 million, which was still not an amount to be satisfied with.

Given the capacity and capability of Bangladesh's pharmaceutical industry, the amount should surpass $1 billion, he said.

The ambassador also assured providing full cooperation and following up with relevant authorities to facilitate the export of pharmaceutical goods to Germany and the import of machinery from there.

Muin Uddin Mazumder, managing director of Sanofi Bangladesh and vice-president of the BGCCI, moderated the webinar while Omar Sadat, BGCCI president also spoke.