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Pharma sales go up

Gazi Towhid Ahmed
Pharmaceutical sales in the domestic market rose 11.37 percent year-on-year to Tk 11,307.25 crore last year on the back of increased medical coverage of the population and easy access to health care services.
The sector raked inTk 10,168.55 crore in sales turnover in 2013, up 8.12 percent from a year ago, according to IMS Health, a leading global information and technology service provider to healthcare and life sciences industries.
*The demand for medicines is on the rise due to easy access to health care services," said Aminur Rahman, IMS Health's managing director for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The medical coverage of people is increasing in both urban and rural areas, thanks to a rise in the number of hospitals and clinics, mostly in the private sector, across the country, Rahman added.
Momenul Haq, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries, the industry lobby group, said medicine makers have developed strong distribution network to reach remote areas that helped increase sales.
Medicine sales are equally split among urban and rural areas, said Haq, who is also the manag-
ing director of General Pharmaceuticals.
Haq said the growth in sales would be affected badly in the first quarter of 2015 due to the ongoing political crisis, as the blockade and strikes have crippled the supply chain since January 6.
“Many vehicles carrying medicines were burnt in the last seven weeks. Of them, seven were carrying medicines from my company," he said, adding that most drug makers have cut production as finished products have piled up in their factories due to the broken supply chain.
"We will count losses if the situation lingers," he said.
Annual pharma sales in the local market are likely to hit Tk 16,000 crore by 2018, riding on increased demand for goodquality medicine, according to IMS Health.
The growth in sales could be even higher than projected if the political situation remains stable, said Rahman of IMS Health.
Bangladesh's pharmaceutical sector has grown tremendously in the last couple of decades. Local companies now produce high quality medicines and meet 98 percent of the local demand.
gazitowhid@thedailystar.net