Nilgiri
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India is a huge behemoth pharma supplier worldwide with generic drug export majors like Ranbaxy who have been at this since the sixties.
Plus Indian pharma mfrs. enjoy support of not only local availability of initial formulations but also huge investment and indigenous production of Active Pharma Ingredients (API) because of hundred crore population...
Bangladesh has started this twenty years late compared to India (license manufacture of Upjohn, Bayer drugs in late eighties) and then moved on past a decade in bulk generics and specialties like ophthalmic drugs and metered dose inhalers in late nineties. Comparisons actually should not be made between India and Bangladesh volume-wise.
So yes - it will take Bangladesh (even proportionally as a nation of sixteen crore) ten more (if not twenty) more years to compete with India in any respectable export volume.
Qualitatively however Bangladeshi drugs take a back seat to no one. I've had American doctors assay Bangladeshi common drugs like acetaminophen (and I have Bangladeshi friends who are involved with local US pharma companies) who know that quality-wise Bangladeshi generics are as good as any in the world.
GMP approvals have been received by most of our major companies from almost all important markets.
This is from a recent annual report of a local pharma exporter of repute (there are about twenty exporters of this size locally),
More info nuggets,
- Launched 28 products (24 generics) in the domestic market; three of which were launched for the first time in Bangladesh
- Introduced Oral Soluble Film (OSF) technology with the launch of an antiemetic drug (Ondansetron) Entered two new markets (Romania and Uganda). (Ondansetron (Zofran) is used to prevent nausea and vomiting that may be caused by surgery or by medicine to treat cancer).
- A total of 55 new registrations done in 15 different countries
- Became the first Bangladeshi company to receive Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) approval from the Taiwan Food & Drug Administration (TFDA) and the Canadian regulatory authority (Health Canada); also received approval from BPOM (Indonesian Agency for Drug And Food Control) for the Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) unit
- Net sales increased to BDT 11,206.9 million, registering a y-o-y growth rate of 6.8%
- Net Profit after tax increased 8.8% to BDT 1,528.3 million
- EPS rose by 8.64% to BDT 4.15
API, Excipients and other ingredients
Historically, Bangladesh has been dependent on imports for APIs and other ingredients. Companies imported APIs and other materials and used them for final production. The pharmaceutical manufacturers in Bangladesh procure raw materials from various countries namely UK, France, Germany, Japan, Holland, Italy, Denmark, China, Switzerland,
Austria, Hungary, India, Ireland etc. Recently, local firms has been approaching to producing ingredients locally, especially API. These have reduced dependency on imported raw materials to 70% of total.
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient or API is the core element of pharmaceutical products, and is the primary cost component for production. At present, there are 21 companies in Bangladesh
manufacturing 41 APIs. Industry participants claim already becoming self-sufficient in some APIs, namely, Penicillin, Cephalexin, NSAID and Anti-Pyretic. The production of APIs is confined to the last stage of Synthesis. Presently, Local APIs take a 20% share in domestic production. The rest 80% is imported. These imported APIs represent majority of raw materials import by Bangladesh, approximately 70%.
Formulations
Formulations represent the mainstream business in pharmaceuticals industry of Bangladesh. Presently, the market consists of approximately 8000 generic products and 258 firms with manufacturing capability, along with some imported patented products. (Source : IDLC Research) From the perspective of business nature, the industry can be classified as-
1. High-End products (Anti Cancer, Insulin, Vaccines etc.)
2. Branded generics (Products with a brand presence )
3. Low End generics
High End Generics:
These are essentially products specific to market niches, i.e. Anti cancer, Diabetic products, Vaccines etc. these products are usually high priced and represent a small portion of the market. Profit margins in such products is very high. Historically, it has been import dependent, and MNCs were the key provider. Recently, domestic firms have been entering into this field, and competition is expected to drive prices and import dependency down. Especially, in Anticancer, Insulin and several vaccine production, several local firms have made significant progress.
Branded Generics:
This represents broadest segment of the market, comprising products with relatively stable margin and Brand orientation. This segment is dominated by local manufacturers, and due to high brand loyalty observed in our market, market share of manufacturers is usually moves rarely. Competition is branding oriented, and firms try to improve RX share and relationships with doctors and related parties to increase market presence. Anti-Gastric and Anti-Biotic are the two dominant product category in this segment.
Low-end branded generics:
This segment is small, often for products with low branding possibility, and price war is most evident here. The number of competitors is very high, and market share of each competitor depends on success of marketing strategy.
I agree you have to start somewhere and its a promising development. But the proof is in the pudding. We will have to give at least 5 or so years to see what the actual trajectory is for Bangladesh pharma sector....from that we can judge the 20 year long term sector size.
