THE state-owned Essential Drugs Company Limited is set to die due to negligence, private companies’ nexus with government procurement, vested quarters’ interest and less publicity and investment. Construction of three units in its Gopalganj factory is still unaccomplished despite a four-time extension to its implementation tenure. Over the years, the project cost has also escalated by 2.5 times to Tk 800 crore from Tk 315 crore because of the delay. The indirect loss from the delay of the project amounts to Tk 2,060 crore, money it would have earned had it gone into production on time.
Essential Drugs took up the project with its declining production capacity at its main Tejgaon factory with outdated machinery installed in the 1960s, a reason that the state-owned drug maker has to resort to private suppliers to meet at least 30% of its needs. In 2011, the Ecnec gave the go-ahead to the project costing Tk 315 crore. The project implementation deadline was September 2013. The company is one of the very important institutions of government. It meets about 80% of the demand for medicines in all government hospitals and 100% in about 14,000 community clinics. Essential Drugs sold medicines worth Tk 634 crore in the last two financial years each, and this FY21 it has set a target of Tk 655 crore.
Gopaglanj project will be the largest Essential Drug plant after completion. The first of the four units will be dedicated to penicillin production. Of the rest, one will produce a variety of life-saving intravenous fluids, another will make iron tablets, and the other will manufacture birth control pills and injections. Officials said foreign consultant cannot work in the project due to pandemic, while some equipment could not arrive because of the pandemic, and foreign technicians could not come either.
Like many public enterprises, the drug company is suffering due to high negligence by the bureaucrats, lack of market-driven decision and execution and obviously lack of research and innovation. When around 40 per cent people of the country are still under the poverty line, the healthcare facility is still essential despite private healthcare centers booming and necessity of Essential Company is still important for the nation.
