Pharmaceutical sales in Bangladesh exceeded Tk 4,000 Crore during 2008 but exports from the country fall radically due to lack of government support.
The total pharmaceutical sales in Bangladesh exceeded Tk 4,000 Crore (around US$ 580 Million) for the first time in 2008. Many of the 258 pharmaceutical companies recorded double-digit growth.
According to IMS, pharmaceutical sales in Bangladesh surged to Tk 3,700 Crore (nearly US$ 541 Million) in 2007 compared to Tk 3,542 Crore (nearly US$ 518 Million) in previous year. At present, the industry is valued at Tk 20,000 Crore (around US$ 3 Billion).
They key factors driving growth in the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical industry include rising health awareness among people, high rate of investments and increased marketing by domestic companies. These factors helped the industry to touch the highest sales mark in 2008.
Domestic companies are greatly benefiting from the drug policy that helped them to tap the market. Some high-tech drug compounds are also imported in the country to fulfill the local demand.
The competition level in the market is escalating both in terms of quality and prices primarily due to the adoption of the state-of-the-art technologies by many domestic companies to cover the occupy market share. Moreover, more than 50 new factories have been set up over the last three years and around two dozen of them adopted aggressive marketing and promotion strategy to raise sales during 2008, said the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI).
However, in the absence of necessary support from the government, the pharmaceutical export from Bangladesh recorded drastic fall over the past few months. Despite this, the country is concentrating to make most of the concession given under the World Trade Organization (WTO) drug patent rules by boosting its pharmaceutical export to the UAE and the Middle East.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Although the pharmaceutical market of Bangladesh has been growing at a fast pace on the back of favorable business condition, the export is unlikely to grow with the same pace until the domestic market base is strong. Besides, the local raw material production needs to be increased to keep the prices competitive.”
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