Govt mulls readjustment of drug prices again

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has scheduled a meeting today to discuss a readjustment of medicine prices, raising serious concerns at a time when consumers are already struggling to keep up with the soaring prices of essential commodities.

Insiders say the ministry’s Health Services Division Secretary Dr Md Anwar Hossain Howlader will chair this meeting, which will be held at 12:30pm this Sunday at the ministry’s conference room.

Officials from the Ministry of Ministry, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), and Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection will be present at the meeting.

When approached for comments, Dr Howlader declined to provide further details to The Business Post, saying, “We will discuss the pricing of medicines at Sunday’s meeting.”

Around June this year, the DGDA had fixed the maximum retail price of 53 products of 19 generics. The decision came after pharmaceutical companies applied to the DGDA for a price hike.

Before the June price hike, the last time medicine prices went up was in 2015 – nearly seven years ago.

Commenting on the possibility of medicine prices once again going up, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury told The Business Post, “If the prices go up again, it would be a severe blow to the consumers who are already in trouble.”

Medicine already turning expensive

An analysis of medicine prices from different pharmaceutical companies shows that the prices of most commonly used medicines have recently gone up.

In recent times, the price of a blister pack of Napa tablets, manufactured by Beximco Pharma, rose from Tk 8 to Tk 12, Napa Rapid from Tk 8 to Tk 13, and Napa Extend from Tk 15 to Tk 20.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd’s hypertension medicine Angilock is now being sold for Tk 100 per blister pack, which was previously Tk 80.

Prices of several antibiotics had also witnessed a price hike. Blister packs of Amodis are now sold for Tk 17, previously Tk 12. Square Pharma’s Cef-3 table blister packs were Tk 135, which are now being sold for Tk 145.

Md Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, a wholesale medicine dealer of Narayanganj, said, “The prices of Napa, Ace, and almost all other medicines of this type have increased, along with the prices of antihypertensives and antibiotics.

“We have no idea why medicine prices are on the rise.”