Pharmaceuticals on the cusp of big leap with first industrial park,PM Hasina likely to inaugurate construction work first week of June

AKM Moinuddin
UNB Staff Writer
Dhaka, May 24 (UNB) - The long standing demand of country’s pharmaceutical companies to make the pharmaceutical industry globally more competitive, cost-effective and increase export volume through producing quality products, is going to be materialized soon through the setting up of a specialized park for the industry.

The present government has progressed much in setting up the country’s first specialized industrial park - Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) at Gajaria upazila under Munshiganj district for the pharmaceuticals sector which is growing fast.

Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), under the Ministry of Industries, has taken up the project in a bid to produce basic raw materials locally, enhance local and foreign investment and to boost the foreign currency earnings through exports.

The construction work of the park was initially scheduled to be inaugurated formally on June 3 but the date may be changed, Industries Minister Dilip Barua indicates.

“The fresh date of formal inauguration of the construction work is yet to be known. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the construction work of the park,” Minister Barua told UNB over phone on Monday.

The then BNP-Jamaat led alliance government came up with the idea in November 2001 but it had failed to implement the project. Later, the military controlled interim government took the decision for implementation of such a project in Munshiganj district in 2007.

As per the revised project profile, a total of 42 plots with Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) will be accommodated in the park with incinerators for solid and liquid waste management where individual companies will set up API plants.

“Each plant will have approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of the UK and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA so that we can produce quality products and export it to the global market without any barrier,” General Secretary of Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) and Managing Director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd Abdul Muktadir told UNB Correspondent AKM Moinuddin.

He said currently the pharmaceutical sector imports 60-70 % of its basic raw materials from the international market. “We’ll be able to get rid of import dependency through producing basic raw materials locally.”

Among the Least Developing Countries (LDCs), Bangladesh has the strongest base to manufacture pharmaceutical products though the country is addressing the need of the basic raw materials for the industry through importing from India, China, Italy and Germany.

Explaining the benefits of the proposed API Park, the BAPI general secretary says local pharmaceutical companies will produce world’s best quality products through minimizing production cost and be able to export it at high prices apart from addressing local requirements with affordable cost.

He confidently said that the pharmaceutical industry will be able to boost its global competitiveness through producing world’s best quality products in the coming days.

Industry insiders hope that over 25,000 skilled workers will be employed if the project is implemented and nearly one lakh people will be benefited indirectly.

Sources said nearly 200 companies are in operation in the country and Bangladeshi products are being exported to 73 countries.

The API project which will be implemented on nearly 200 acres of land with a total expenditure of over Tk 233 crore, and is expected to be complete by December next year, sources at Industries Ministry said.

On the other hand, owners of pharmaceutical companies in a recent meeting at the Industries Ministry pledged to provide jobs for the affected people in the project area evaluating their educational qualification.

The specialized park will help Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies to be prepared for maintaining growth in local sales and exports and remaining competitive in the post-2016 period, when patents will be imposed on all generic drugs, according to officials of pharmaceutical companies.

In 2001, under the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, the World Trade Organisation allowed developing and poor nations to produce generic drugs until 2016 without compulsory licences or paying the patent holders.

The word 'generic' is used to describe a product, particularly a drug, which does not have a trademark. For example, 'paracetamol' is a chemical ingredient that is found in many branded painkillers and is often sold as a generic medicine in its own right.

END/UNB/AKM/ssk/