We are pleased by the WTO’s decision to extend the drug patent exemption for LDCs including Bangladesh until 2032.
The waiver is of crucial importance to the goal of increasing access to medicines for all the world’s people.
Bangladesh has benefited hugely from the National Drugs policy over the last three decades. It has enabled entrepreneurs to build a competitive, self-sufficient pharmaceuticals industry, which makes 97% of the medicine sold in the country and is now in a front-line position to expand globally.
The time is right for the government to help the industry build further upon its proven strengths.
Low prices and high quality products are already helping Bangladesh’s pharmaceuticals industry sell medicine to 107 different countries, including Brazil, Kenya, and the UK. The continuing waiver offers huge potential to dramatically multiply the value of these exports by increasing production of generic medicine.
The industry is becoming ever more efficient at producing low-cost medicine, with Incepta, for example, demonstrating that it can profitably produce a generic version of an anti-Hepatiis C drug at 1% of the $1,000-a-pill price for which it sells in the US.
With around 1,200 pharmaceutical products achieving registration for exports in the past three years, there are good reasons to hope for a large jump in the coming years to help the sector become one of the country’s top export earners.
The government should take a strategic approach to champion the pharmaceuticals industry’s growth.
As a knowledge-based sector, it needs to be able to continuously increase investment in research and development. To maximise its potential, it is vital that the government free up outdated exchange controls to help the pharmaceuticals industry, and other national leaders like RMG and leather, be able to freely compete and invest internationally.
The government should also help by incentivising investment in research, through encouraging co-operation between universities and business and by ensuring full and quick access to more testing laboratories to certify products for export.
Bangladesh’s growing domestic market and manufacturing base provides the pharmaceuticals sector with a strong platform to create new jobs and generate vital foreign revenues. Everything possible must be done to help it grow, by incentivising investment in new manufacturing plants and facilities.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
