API park to improve export of medicines

Image collected
The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) professional park is finally taking condition in Bangladesh more than a decade following the scheme was adopted by the federal government to facilitate a reliable supply of raw materials of prescription drugs and reduce import dependency.

Construction job of API Industrial Recreation area at Gazaria in Munshiganj is progressing fast. The federal government has already paid all of the plots in the commercial park to the medication makers.

Some foreign partners invited by localized drug makers have previously visited the API plots. The BAPI (Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries) users have planned to help make the best utilization of the recreation area as separate corporations are anticipated to produce different types of drug raw materials.

At present, local pharmaceutical companies need to import recycleables from foreign countries - usually from China and India. Domestic production of recycleables is certainly not enough to meet up the demand of the pharmaceuticals sector, which manufactures about 8,000 generic medications.

As over 90 % of the Tk 47 billion worth of recycleables are imported each year, the sector is susceptible to external shocks. Native companies should be able to source at least one half of their recycleables once the activities of the recreation area start. The park is expected to start the international API industry to Bangladesh.

The country's pharmaceutical sector is defined to grow at 15 % for the next five years riding on the expanded domestic marketplace together with new export frontiers. Bangladesh's pharmaceutical industry meets 98 % of the neighborhood demand and exports to 151 countries.

The country has suffered from lack of sufficient backward linkages like a fully-functional API park and bio-equivalence testing laboratory.

Although the neighborhood drug-makers are producing most old and conventional APIs on a commercial scale, such companies are definately not synthesising the brand new and patented drugs, and appointment the growing demand for the same. The federal government hasn't yet considered establishing a lab which could help the sector in a bigger approach.

The government must formulate an insurance plan for establishing a pharmaceutical special economical zone (SEZ) with the intention of providing an internationally competitive and hassle-free environment. It should also give to the drug-makers all varieties of benefits to inspire export. Both China and India possess successfully set up numerous bio labs and SEZs to enhance pharma export.

The API commercial park promises to propel Bangladesh to a fresh height as a medication exporter because it is likely to help the neighborhood pharmaceutical companies gain more export orders with a competitive edge and maintain stable prices in the domestic marketplace.

Bangladesh can definitely boost it has the pharmaceuticals exports on the trunk of the patent waiver that has been extended to minimal developed countries (LDCs) up to 2032. And Bangladesh may be the simply LDC that makes pharmaceuticals. A time-befitting API framework may also draw in local and overseas investment.

The developed and growing countries need to provide remuneration to patent holders if indeed they produce molecules of patented drugs locally. As such, if the API insurance policy is implemented effectively, these countries would spend money on Bangladesh to safe and sound the patent waiver.

The API policy framed by the federal government can help cut raw materials manufacturing cost considerably and produce 370 important API molecules for exports. Last year, the total quantity of locally created API molecule and laboratory reagents stood at 41.

The policy will aim to cut raw materials import reliance from 97 % in 2016 to 80 % in 2032. It plans to improve API export cash flow to $90 million in 2032 from $1.5 million in 2016 and create 0.5 million jobs by 2032. It also plans to guarantee the entry of fresh organizations in the raw materials creating sector and attract $1.0 billion in foreign direct investment.

Raw material producers will be permitted to retain 40 % of their export income. The one borrower cap may also not be relevant for API and reagents manufacturers. They'll also receive back-to-back again letters of credit center.

Local industry persons welcomed the policy, saying Bangladesh's pharmaceutical sector has developed however the backward linkage has not kept pace.

There are 7-8 API producers and all are local. The policy would bring international API suppliers to Bangladesh through joint ventures. Some foreign firms have previously approached the government.

Greater affluence among the poorest socio-economic group and a good shift in disease account are expected to operate a vehicle the growth of health care expenditure in Bangladesh found in the context of the go up of non-communicable conditions and a gradual maneuver from acute to chronic ailments.

Local medicines have been elevated to such a stage that drugs and medicines made are being exported to different countries. Among 48 countries, Bangladesh is top rated in the pharmaceutical goods. Currently, 24,000 brand drugs are being produced in 257 pharmaceuticals corporations in the country.

These factories are making medicines and raw materials worth a lot more than Tk 25 billion a year. There happen to be about 0.2 million persons working in this sector. The API Industrial Park is expected to make this advancement faster.

The doors of latest possibilities have been exposed. Medicines price cut for LDCs on the globe increased for more 17 years. Bangladesh's medicine sector has got a merit price reduction until 2033. The present world market of medicine is just about of $1000 billion.

The country's drug marketplace keeps growing at an gross annual rate of 16.50 per cent which is very amazing. How big is this market features crossed Tk 20 billion in 2018, and 68 % of this market has been controlled by top 10 10 medicine companies. Just about all selling drugs available are antibiotics.

So that you can achieve self-sufficiency in the production of pharmaceutical recycleables, the federal government took the initiative to determine this industrial park in 2008.

According to competent resource, the work on establishing the country's first medication industrial park will end in the near future. This will encounter 100 per cent demand of the country's drugs and facilitate medicine export to numerous countries.
Source: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Tags :

Share this news on: