Drug policy set to be finalised in two weeks

(Shamsul Huda): National drug policy is set to be finalized within two weeks incorporating recommendations made by different ministries, Health Ministry sources said. A review team is working on the policy since December last year when the draft policy was submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) for review.

Health Secretary MM Neazuddin told the FE, “We have already received the recommendations and suggestions from different ministries and they are being incorporated into the policy.” He said the drug policy review would be completed soon by adding and subtracting contents in the draft. Director of the Drug Administration Salim Barami blamed the procrastination in the ministry for the delay in the finalization of the policy.

He said the draft was prepared in coordination with different government departments, nationally renowned physicians, university teachers, pharmaceutical experts as well as allopathic, ayurvedic, and homeopathic medicine manufacturers.

Senior Vice-President (SVP) of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) Dr Momenul Haq, said the existing policy requires review to keep pace with the changing competitive export and domestic market.

He said the new policy must have the options to facilitate joint venture investments with foreign companies, manufacturing under licensing, offshore capital investment for accelerating export, and a policy to align the ayurvedic formulations to comply with set standards.

He said to export medicine companies need to send foreign currency abroad for registration of products, market access, distribution, dossier purchase, and other purposes.

But the current monetary policy allows only a certain amount of money to be remitted for export purposes which is not enough, he said and added the policy reviewers must consider the matter before finalization.

The BAPI vice president said, there must be some tools in the policy to protect public health and let the ayurvedic medicine manufacturers maintain standards in their formulations.

Mr. Haq, also managing director of General Pharmaceuticals Limited, said gross unethical practices are being committed in the name of marketing medicine and that some well-known manufacturers are providing alluring complimentary items to physicians.

He said if some laws on ethical drug marketing are there in the reviewed policy it will lead to curbing such activities of some companies.

The MOHFW secretary said it was time-consuming to get recommendations from different ministries regarding positive developments in this growing sector.

“We have to think of the interest of both local and export markets – more than 80 countries of the world – as export volume is increasing every year”, Mr Neazuddin said.

He said the review would be sent to the cabinet within fifteen days and a group is already working in this regard.

A source in the BAPI said the delay in reviewing the drug policy is frustrating. It is yet to be sent to the cabinet and once it is there it is difficult to say when it would get the approval, he said.

He said it is important that the new policy spur the growth of the $ 1.2 billion domestic pharmaceuticals market and enhance export by investing money in high technology-based industries.

He said after the 1982 drug ordinance there was a drug policy in 2006 but considering the current export and competitive domestic market the policy requires a lot of changes. (Source: The Financial Express)

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