Manufacturers can’t be given free hand in pricing all drugs

IT is really astounding to know that the relevant authorities fix only 2.3 per cent of the total medicines in Bangladesh leaving the rest to the hands of the pharmaceutical companies that produce them.

The consequence of this is obvious: Prices of drugs, like essential commodities now, have reached beyond the buying capacity of most people.

Since drugs, like foods, are very important for maintaining health and survival, patients are forced to buy costly drugs, and drug manufacturers are making brisk money in absence of government’s effective control on drug pricing.

Reportedly, of the 20,000 branded medicines in Bangladesh, authorities control pricing of only 460 branded items under 117 generic names.

From the drug manufacturers it is said that the prices of medicines have risen because of the high rate of dollar against taka and once the value of dollar stabilises, the present high price of medicine will come down.

Sounds a bit logical, but if one takes into consideration the nature of the business people that rob people’s money through syndicates with tacit approval of the government, one can be hardly optimistic.

Still, the trend of Bangladesh’s market is such that once prices of things go up, they hardly come down despite change in situation.

The government, however, must have control or at least a supervising role over the pricing of the drugs so that manufacturers can make only profits that are logical.

In the past, the Directorate General of Drug Administration could set prices of more than 200 medicines, but it is not clear why this number has come down to present 117 generic medicines produced by the pharmaceutical companies.

Moreover, according to the Drugs (Control) Ordinance, 1982, the government can fix the maximum price rate of a drug through gazette notification.

It remains unclear, for what mysterious reasons, the government is losing control over the drug manufacturers in fixing the drug price when the law clearly gives power to control prices.

Drug companies cannot be given a free hand to fix the price of essential drugs because they are there to make money considering little about profit that could be morally justifiable. It is absolutely important that the government fix prices of all types of medicines through a committee along with stakeholders maintaining a process.