Kamruzzaman Bablu ;
The prices of a good number of essential medicines have marked an abnormal rise in recent weeks prompting a chorus of disapproval by suffering patients in particular and people in general. Taking this chance, medicine traders are making a very good group of dishonest business gaining high profit, sources said.
Medicine buyers say the drug-manufactures have raised prices primarily being guided by their greed for making higher profit. But the pharmaceutical companies attribute the drugs’ price hike to the rising cost of raw materials globally.
The recent increase in prices of some lifesaving and commonly used group of medicines and brands like fexofenadin (Fenadin of Renata or Fexo of Square), omeprazole (as is Losectil of Eskayef), clonazepam (Pase of Opsonin or Rivotril of Radiant), Tolperisone Hydrochlo-ride (Myolax of Incepta), valsartan (Diovan of Novartis), ciprofloxacin (Cilocin of Pacific), calcium (Calbo-D of Square or Ostocal-D of Eskayef) and a wide range of vitamin items (Neuro-B of Square, Bextram Gold of Beximco or Bost of General) has sparked widespread criticism.
The rate of increase in many cases hovered openly over 50 to 60 percent with the helpless customers and patients always at the sufferers’ end apparently in absence of any price control authority.
Leading pharmaceutical company Square recently hiked prices of its various medicine brands including its popular prescribed product Neuro-B, an item containing Vitamin B1 B6 B12, citing short and costly supply of raw materials. Before an astonishing 60 percent rise in price from Tk 150 to Tk 240 per pack, Neuro-B was out off-market for several weeks for an unknown reason.
Almost all other companies played the same trick while hiking the price first, they stopped supplying the product with the same generic name and then presented it to the worried customers already in waiting for quite some time, but this time with a new and hefty, if not healthy, price tag on it and in some cases with a new look to all brands to justify the price hike.
Interestingly, all the price hiking medicine manufactures with the same generic product like Aristopharma’s Neobion, Incepta’s Vitabion, General’s Bost and NiproGold of Nippro-JMI maintained the same rate of increase although questions were raised as to whether all the price movers maintained the same quality of their products and whether the same standard of production base was ensured. Buyers, already shocked by the price hike, had to oblige as always finding no other choice.
Same incident happened when Square hiked the price from Tk 150 to Tk 210 a container of Calbo-D, a mixture dosage combining calcium and vitamin D3. Almost all others, including Eskayef for Ostocal-D, Aristopharma for Calbon-D and Pacific for Cal-D, followed the suit taking the opportunity of hiking 40 per cent price with both hands just after a little artificial supply gap on the pretext of high cost and dearth of raw materials.
Eskayef recently increased the price of Xinc-B, a combination of zinc and vitamin B, by 50 per cent from earlier Tk 60 to Tk 90 per pack and its popular generic omeprazole brand Losectil-20 capsule by 25 per cent from previous Tk 40 per strip to Tk 50, among other items. Renata hiked the price of its fexofenadin brand Fenadin-180 by 25 per cent from Tk 80 per strip to Tk 100 just within days after Square did it.
Among others, Pacific earlier increased the price of its ciprofloxacin brand Cilocin-500 by a whopping 50 per cent from Tk 80 per strip to Tk 120, Square hiked the rate of its clonazepam brand Epitra-2 by more than 60 per cent from Tk 120 per strip to Tk 200, Incepta did the same with its tolperisone hydrochloride brand Myolax-50 hiking 40 per cent in rate and very recently another pharmaceutical giant Beximco joined the bandwagon adjusting its price of amoxicillin-clavunic acid combination brand Tyclav-375 with a 25 per cent increase.
The prices of a good number of essential medicines have marked an abnormal rise in recent weeks prompting a chorus of disapproval by suffering patients in particular and people in general. Taking this chance, medicine traders are making a very good group of dishonest business gaining high profit, sources said.
Medicine buyers say the drug-manufactures have raised prices primarily being guided by their greed for making higher profit. But the pharmaceutical companies attribute the drugs’ price hike to the rising cost of raw materials globally.
The recent increase in prices of some lifesaving and commonly used group of medicines and brands like fexofenadin (Fenadin of Renata or Fexo of Square), omeprazole (as is Losectil of Eskayef), clonazepam (Pase of Opsonin or Rivotril of Radiant), Tolperisone Hydrochlo-ride (Myolax of Incepta), valsartan (Diovan of Novartis), ciprofloxacin (Cilocin of Pacific), calcium (Calbo-D of Square or Ostocal-D of Eskayef) and a wide range of vitamin items (Neuro-B of Square, Bextram Gold of Beximco or Bost of General) has sparked widespread criticism.
The rate of increase in many cases hovered openly over 50 to 60 percent with the helpless customers and patients always at the sufferers’ end apparently in absence of any price control authority.
Leading pharmaceutical company Square recently hiked prices of its various medicine brands including its popular prescribed product Neuro-B, an item containing Vitamin B1 B6 B12, citing short and costly supply of raw materials. Before an astonishing 60 percent rise in price from Tk 150 to Tk 240 per pack, Neuro-B was out off-market for several weeks for an unknown reason.
Almost all other companies played the same trick while hiking the price first, they stopped supplying the product with the same generic name and then presented it to the worried customers already in waiting for quite some time, but this time with a new and hefty, if not healthy, price tag on it and in some cases with a new look to all brands to justify the price hike.
Interestingly, all the price hiking medicine manufactures with the same generic product like Aristopharma’s Neobion, Incepta’s Vitabion, General’s Bost and NiproGold of Nippro-JMI maintained the same rate of increase although questions were raised as to whether all the price movers maintained the same quality of their products and whether the same standard of production base was ensured. Buyers, already shocked by the price hike, had to oblige as always finding no other choice.
Same incident happened when Square hiked the price from Tk 150 to Tk 210 a container of Calbo-D, a mixture dosage combining calcium and vitamin D3. Almost all others, including Eskayef for Ostocal-D, Aristopharma for Calbon-D and Pacific for Cal-D, followed the suit taking the opportunity of hiking 40 per cent price with both hands just after a little artificial supply gap on the pretext of high cost and dearth of raw materials.
Eskayef recently increased the price of Xinc-B, a combination of zinc and vitamin B, by 50 per cent from earlier Tk 60 to Tk 90 per pack and its popular generic omeprazole brand Losectil-20 capsule by 25 per cent from previous Tk 40 per strip to Tk 50, among other items. Renata hiked the price of its fexofenadin brand Fenadin-180 by 25 per cent from Tk 80 per strip to Tk 100 just within days after Square did it.
Among others, Pacific earlier increased the price of its ciprofloxacin brand Cilocin-500 by a whopping 50 per cent from Tk 80 per strip to Tk 120, Square hiked the rate of its clonazepam brand Epitra-2 by more than 60 per cent from Tk 120 per strip to Tk 200, Incepta did the same with its tolperisone hydrochloride brand Myolax-50 hiking 40 per cent in rate and very recently another pharmaceutical giant Beximco joined the bandwagon adjusting its price of amoxicillin-clavunic acid combination brand Tyclav-375 with a 25 per cent increase.
