THE prices of essential medicines are increasing by leaps and bounds over the last six months. According to a report published in a local Bangla daily, the price hike of life-saving drugs is causing a serious difficulty to patients but the Director General of Drug Administration (DGDA) and the drug manufacturing companies are not taking any steps to mitigate the problem.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club recently to express anguish over the anarchy. CAB has also protested the sale of adulterated and substandard medicines. Hospital staffs even sell medicine to private pharmacies which were given to the hospital for free distribution to patients. It is a huge trade inflicting human miseries while the government and other policy makers as well as the law enforcers are watching the development from the sidelines.
Reports said medicine prices increased by over 20 per cent in the last six months which included drugs for common use like blood pressure, diabetes, anti-biotics and gastric ailment drugs. Retailers said they cannot influence the price which manufacturers are dictating. But manufacturers hit back saying such a rise is for their survival to keep on producing pointing to the high cost of inputs. But the question is how the patients can survive affected both by high cost of medicine and the poor quality of adulterated medicines.
We know that DGDA has a direct role over the price setting of essential drugs which include 117 items. No drug producer can arbitrarily change it. Moreover, in the case of fixing the ‘indicative prices’ of other medicines DGDA gave approval to the prices while producers put forth such prices based on the cost of raw materials, packaging and other managerial costs. So the government retains the last say in price fixing of the medicine items but the question is why it is not exercising its right to enforce discipline in the medicine market and protect patients from the cruelty of the market operators. Moreover, why the Ministry of Health is sitting as an idle onlooker without making any intervention to the surging prices in the medicine market is the big question.
Most people tend to believe that a nexus between the powerful pharmaceutical industry lobby and the government may be largely blamed for the government inaction. Many medicine producers are also ruling party MPs or such other functionaries. They are using the industry to ruthlessly exploit the poor patients and middle income families to make enormous profits.
We hold the view that the government must restore the discipline in the drug market by enforcing a rigorous drug policy and applying standard rules for the producers, retailers and physicians. We suggest that the government may also set up a monitoring cell to clear the market of adulterated medicines. Moreover, the price lists of all medicine items should be available at the consumer level to avoid shops overcharging them. Physicians must stop promoting medicine from certain companies who sponsor them as the practice looks like an immoral one.
