Beximco Pharma eyes export market expansion

Beximco Pharma, a leading medicine manufacturer, now targets expansion of its export markets to Australia and North American countries.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a forum of 10 Middle Eastern countries, and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia have already accredited the company in 2008 for exports.

The combined pharmaceutical market of GCC is valued at more than $4 billion. Currently, the multinational companies in Europe and the US hold the lion's share in the GCC market.

Beximco Pharma Director Zakaria S Chowdhury told The Daily Star, “A team from Brazil has inspected our plant recently and we hope we will be certified for export of medicines there in a month.”

“We await accreditation from the UK administration also,” he added.

Presently, the company exports to 14 Asian, five African, four Pacific and two Middle Eastern countries.

Over 200 small, medium and large local and multinational companies meet around 97 percent of the Tk 5,000 crore domestic market demand.

According to industry people, some of these companies exported medicines worth nearly Tk 300 crore in 2008, which were Tk 200 crore and Tk 150 crore in 2007 and 2006 respectively.

The country now exports a wide range of pharmaceutical products covering all major therapeutic classes and dosage forms to around 60 countries, including some developed markets. High-tech specialised products like inhalers, suppositories, nasal sprays, indictable and infusions are also in the export basket.

Novartis, Beximco, Square Pharmaceuticals, Aventis, Eskayef, Popular Pharmaceuticals, ACI and Acme are some of the leading exporters.

A World Trade Organisation facility has paved the way for Bangladeshi companies to grab the global medicine markets.

Bangladesh will be able to continue with the patented products up to December 2015 as per trade related intellectual property rights. Pharmaceutical industries are now legally allowed to manufacture and sell generic versions of on-patent pharmaceutical products for domestic consumption and exports to other LDCs.

Bangladesh is a country among 50 least developed countries that is self sufficient in pharmaceuticals, the industry people claim.

But manufacturers must strictly comply with the standards for export of medicines in respective countries.

Beximco officials said the company's export figure would increase manifold in the years to come.

“We hope to take Beximco Pharma's export figure to Tk 1,000 crore by 2013 from the present national figure of Tk 300 crore,” said Chowdhury.

Beximco is diversifying to parental form of dosage of ophthalmology and nebuliser, he added.

A good number of companies, including Square Pharma, Renata and Eskayef, have won accreditation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of the United Kingdom.