Jobair Al Mahmud In recent times, the abnormal increase in the prices of various life-saving drugs has caused instability in the pharmaceutical market, as well as the health care of the common consumer is being severely disrupted. Many medicines are slowly becoming beyond the affordability of patients from middle and lower class families.
According to the Department of Drug Administration, the price of more than 1,200 drugs has increased by 20 to 100 percent in the last six months. The prices of medicines for almost all diseases including high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, kidney disease, respiratory system disease, diabetes have increased at an abnormal rate in recent times. The prices of many antibiotic drugs have been doubled. In this situation, the right of common people to get health care is being lost. There have been widespread questions about the justification for the increase in drug prices. Owners of pharmaceutical companies have blamed the increase in production costs for the price hike. According to them, the price of raw materials of medicine has increased in the international market and the value of the rupee has decreased against the dollar. The same amount of raw material has to be imported at a higher cost than before. This has increased the cost of drug production.
There is a question as to whether the drug companies are adopting proper procedures in this unusual increase in the price of medicines. The rate of increase in drug prices is inconsistent with the rate of dollar and rupee adjustment. According to sources, there is a huge difference between the price of raw materials and the price of medicine. Despite the increase in the import price of raw materials, the increase in the price of various drugs by 25-200 percent is unusual and it shows the mentality of the companies to get excessive profit from drugs. According to drug experts, the prices of raw materials of the drugs which the companies have hiked up in the international market have not increased recently. Experience has shown that even though the price of raw materials decreased, the companies did not reduce the price of medicines. For example, in 2010, when the price of raw materials of drugs decreased in the global market, the price of drugs in Bangladesh was increased.
Although liberalization and privatization of economic activities began in the 1980s, the drug policy of 1982 decided to maintain government control over the production, marketing and distribution of drugs and vested the government with the power to control the price of any drug. As a result, it was possible to limit the market price of medicines within the purchasing power of the common people of this country, while the investment of the producer class and the rational profit were achieved rapidly. As a result, the economic management of medicines in Bangladesh reaches a balanced state through a mass-oriented structure, where the interests of both consumers and producers are protected. But in 1994, the then government started implementing neoliberal policies in the pharmaceutical sector and reduced the government's role in managing the pharmaceutical market and established the dominance of the producer class, threatening the health rights of the common people of the country. In a directive of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on February 26, 1994, it is said that the price of non-essential drugs will be determined by the respective manufacturing companies. That is, according to this notification, out of 2,200 types of drugs prepared by 262 drug companies of the country, except for only 117 essential drugs, the remaining 2,083 drugs have the authority to determine the price of the related companies. The drug policy formulated later in 2005 also did not specifically mention price controls. Due to free freedom in pricing, drug companies are marketing it at whatever price they want.
In recent times, the monopolistic profit-oriented mentality of the producer class has increased, which is the main reason for the ever-increasing prices of medicines. In the name of free market economy, businessmen will increase the prices to make unlimited profits and say that market forces will determine the price of drugs. As a result, thousands of poor people will be deprived of healthcare because they cannot afford life-saving drugs. State is a social and welfare organization. It therefore falls within the responsibility of the state to protect the public from the monopolistic encroachments of the market system. So the state has to take the responsibility of protecting the interests of the people. Access to affordable medicines is a human right to health. The state cannot avoid its responsibility to protect this right. Since the government has no role in determining the price of drugs, the only factor in this case is the unfettered profit of the producer class. As a result, its price increases unreasonably.
There is no problem for the upper class to buy medicines at high prices, but the lower class and marginalized people of the country are not able to buy the necessary medicines, so their health is at risk. Therefore, the role of the government in determining and controlling the prices of medicines is indispensable to ensure the primary health care of the masses. In order to control drug prices, the government must repeal the Anti-People's Office Order of 1994 and take back the power to set drug prices in its own hands. According to the advice of drug experts, the drug market management should be shaped in such a way that the interests of both consumers and producers are protected by formulating a mass-oriented drug policy by revising the existing drug policy. The new drug policy should expand the existing list of essential drugs in Bangladesh and include 250-300 drugs in the list. To overcome the volatile situation of unbridled price hike in the drug market, the government needs to create an effective pricing and monitoring framework representing the drug manufacturers, sellers, regulatory bodies and consumers or the general public. The Ministry of Health and the Department of Drug Administration should take effective action in this regard.
(Medicine is a very necessary product for us. But many games are played with this very necessary product. And with this game, the life and death of people also depends. A class of businessmen do business with the medicine which has the possibility of killing people's lives if not taken. Jobair Al Mahmud This text is published precisely with the people in mind).
# Zobair Al Mahmood : Lecturer, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Dhaka
zalmahmud@yahoo.com
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