CAB demands halt to medicine price hike

The Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) has demanded suspension of the process to increase the price of medicines again as prices of all kinds of daily commodities have gone up along with those of medicines in the country in recent times.

"If the administration does not prevent the medicine price hike and if it rises again, then we will take recourse to the law," said CAB President Ghulam Rahman in an online press conference, titled "Protest against unreasonable and unethical price hike of medicines" on Wednesday.

Ghulam Rahman said the Directorate General of Drug Administration should monitor the market properly to ensure that no one makes excessive profits. The price hike should be reined in as low-income people have lost their capacity to buy this necessary product.

CAB Treasurer Md Munjur-e-Khoda Tarafdar said the Drug Pricing Committee held a meeting at the health ministry on 20 November to deliberate on the decisions of the technical sub-committee constituted for fixing the prices of 117 listed drugs. They reviewed the cost sheets of 58 items of 21 generics of six drug manufacturing companies.

These drugs include cholera saline, Hartmann's solution, sodium chloride, dextrose, dextrose plus sodium chloride, metronidazole and human insulin.

"When the prices of almost all daily commodities in the country are on the rise, increasing the prices of essential products like medicines is not acceptable in any way. The government should reduce hidden costs and control drug prices," said Md Munjur-e-Khoda Tarafdar.

He also said the government issued a notification on 20 July, revising the maximum retail price of 53 medicines. In the last six months, the prices of these drugs have increased by 13-75%. The price of paracetamol syrup alone has increased by 75%.

Apart from this, the prices of medicines, including antibiotics, antacid, and medicines for high blood pressure and diabetes have increased from 13 to 33%. In this situation, prices of medicines should not be increased further.

Kazi Abdul Hannan, a member of CAB and editor of Vokta Kantho, said medicine manufacturing companies give commissions and gifts to doctors in various ways at pharmacy level in the name of mark-up or hidden cost. The pharmaceutical companies also spend crores of taka on entertainment and sponsoring foreign trips for various doctors' organisations. These costs increase the price of a drug three to four times. If these expenses are reduced, then consumers can get some relief from the price hike.

CAB General Secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said the Institute of Public Health (IPH) was the only government organisation that produced saline. It produced life-saving IV fluids (intravenous fluids), blood bags and reagents and supplied them to all government hospitals.

"But currently its production remains halted. An inquiry committee should be formed to find out why it is not producing these medicines anymore. Pharmaceutical companies have a monopoly over these medicines as the government company is not producing them anymore," he said.

CAB Senior Vice President Professor Shamsul Alam said, "The companies are increasing the price of medicines as they wish. The Directorate General of Drug Administration has failed as a regulatory body. It should be investigated whether it is its inability or a tendency to benefit the pharmaceutical companies."

He said in 1994, the then government issued an order on keeping only 117 generic drugs under its control and the rest to go under the control of drug companies. This order should be cancelled as the pharmaceutical companies are misusing the order to increase medicine prices.

The CAB demanded that the Department of Drug Administration immediately review the increase in the price of drugs through a committee consisting of all stakeholders and suspend the process of an increase in the price of drugs, including IV fluids, until such a review is done.

The organisation demanded controlling the prices by reducing the mark-up on import of raw materials. The government can provide subsidies to control the medicine price hike, they recommended.

It also demanded the manufacturing and marketing of saline through government agencies such as the Institute of Public Health.