Govt slacks on price control of 91pc drugs
The drug policy, which is supposed to update the list of essential drugs, is not in sight, while the increase in the prices of drugs goes unabated as the government do not control prices of 91 per cent of the drugs that are not on the list in breach of law.
The pharmaceutical companies have reportedly increased the prices of drugs in three phases in 2013.
Health activists and experts feared that the pharmaceutical companies were pressurising the government causing the delay in framing the policy
The ruling Awami League in its election manifesto for the 2008 general elections pledged, ‘An appropriate pharmaceutical policy to bring self- sufficiency in the production of medicines of international standard and to promote their export will be formulated.’
Although a draft policy has been prepared, none can say when it would be placed before the cabinet.
A committee started preparing the draft of the policy about two years ago and under the committee, a subcommittee prepare a list of essential drugs, committee sources said.
The committee submitted the draft policy to the health ministry over 10 months ago, said health ministry sources.
Health secretary MM Niaz Uddin in June told New Age, ‘The ministry will take three more months to place the draft policy before the cabinet.’
The health ministry sent the draft policy to different ministries asking for their comments in the middle of June, he had said.
‘We hope that the concern ministries will send us their comments by the first week of July,’ he had said.
Officials in the ministry said that the ministry was yet to get the opinions.
According to health and drug experts, more than 1,300 generic drugs, including combination drugs, are being manufactured in the country, while the government controls the prices of only 117 of them, which are on the list of commonly used drugs.
Section 11 of the Drug Control Ordinance 1982 stipulates, that ‘the government may, by notification in the official gazette, fix the maximum price at which any medicine may be sold’ and ‘any pharmaceutical raw material may be imported or sold’.
Directorate General of Drug Administration director Salim Barami said that the drug administration was unable to control the prices of all drugs as a notification issued by the health ministry on February 26, 1994 empowered it to control the prices of commonly used drugs only.
The government’s action in controlling the drug price is a clear violation of the law and the notification is illegal, as no notification or rules can overrule any law, said former Bangladesh Medical Association president Rashid-e-Mahbub, Dhaka University pharmaceutical technology department dean ABM Faroque and BRAC University school of law director Shahdeen Malik, also a Supreme Court lawyer.
The government do not even control the prices of the essential drugs, although the existing list of essential drugs in Bangladesh include only 209 drugs, while the World Health Organisation’s list includes 348, said a pharmacology professor at Bangabndhu Sheikh Mujib Medial University.
Although the government has initiated a move to update the list of essential drugs and commonly used drugs, the experts have questioned its sincerity, as it is yet to finalise the lists the submitted by a committee about one year ago.
According to sources in the health ministry, the committee has recommended 304-308 drugs for the updated list of essential drugs.
The government, however, will not be ‘able’ to fix the prices of all the essential drugs, health minister AFM Ruhal Haque had said in February.
‘We will negotiate with the drug manufacturers to fix the prices of the maximum drugs proposed on the list,’ he had said.
The health experts feared that Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries would create huge pressure on the government not to fix the prices of maximum number of drugs even from the list of essential drugs.
The success of the negotiation will, however, depend on whether the government will opt to create election funds from drug companies or to secure vote by ensuring drugs for people at affordable prices through price control, the experts said.
The government is legally bound to control prices of all drugs and it cannot ignore the legal duty in the name of essential drugs or commonly used drugs, the experts said.
Most of the drug companies are also avoiding fixation of prices of a number of the commonly used drugs by preparing a combination drug with an active ingredient of other drugs, price of which are not controlled, they said.
Health activists and experts expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in framing the policy and observed that the pharmaceutical companies made the pressure on the government for delaying the process.
‘The large pharmaceutical companies do not want to come under regulation of the government,’ said Shastha Andolan executive director Farida Akhter.
As it recommends controlling the prices of many more drugs, the companies are pursuing not to pass the policy, she added.
The health experts urged the government to fix prices of all drugs immediately in accordance with the law.
-With New Age input
