Scant supply leads to drug price hike

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Prices of a number of drugs including inhalers, eye drops, oral saline and contraceptives have risen tremendously in recent times when people are already struggling to cope with rising prices of essentials.

Drug retailers are not selling the drugs at maximum retail price (MRP) printed on the drugs with the excuse that the supply of the drugs are scarce and they are buying the drugs at higher prices from sources other than the manufacturers, alleged frequent users of the drugs.

Scant supply has led to the price increase of some drugs including oral re-hydration saline, inhalers of Sulbutamol group, Aflinocol and CiproA eye drops manufactured by ACME laboratories and Amdocal Plus tablets made by Beximco Pharmaceuticals, said retailers.

Aflinocol or CiproA that used to be sold for Tk 13 each is now being sold for Tk 25 as the manufacturer of the drugs cannot ensure the supply as per demand, the retailers added.

For the same reason, the price of Sulbutamol inhalers has increased by at least Tk 40 above its MRP, a number of drugstore owners said.

“Inhaler is an essential drug for me as I can’t start my day without it. So I have to buy this drug at any cost — regardless of its price,” said 58-year-old asthma patient Yasin Ahmed.

“I was quite lucky to get it after scouring at least five drugstores for it,” said Ahmed with a tone of relief.

The price of Multivit Plus by Square Pharmaceuticals has gone up from Tk 30 to Tk 33 while a box of 20 sachets of oral re-hydration saline (ORS) made by SMC now sells for Tk 70 as opposed to its previous rate of Tk 60.

The latest deterioration of diarrhoea situation in the country has fuelled the price increase of ORS, speculated the retailers.

The price of saline infusion set even rose from Tk 6 to Tk 13 apiece — soon after the government banned its import to promote various local manufacturers including JMI Bangla.

A drug accessories importer seeking anonymity said, “The fact of the matter, however, is, these local companies are deliberately manufacturing too few of the infusion sets to raise its price, making the patients victim of their greed.”

The retail price of Femicon or Minicon, oral contraceptive pills manufactured by Social Marketing Company (SMC), has also increased to Tk 18 a strip from MRP of Tk 12.

A drug retailer at Uttara said, “The manufacturer’s price for inhaler Salmolin by ACME Pharmaceuticals used to be Tk 120, but now we have to pay Tk 140 for it. That’s why we have to sell it at a higher price.”

Similarly, Beximco Pharmaceutical’s inhaler Azmasol, with an MRP of Tk 140, is now priced at Tk 165 for the retailers, he added.

The drug market has been experiencing a crisis of inhalers since November last year as its local manufacturers including Glaxo, Beximco and Square have not been maintaining adequate supply of the drug, said retailers.

To meet the demand, the retailers are buying the drugs at higher rates from open market at Mitford in the capital and that led to the rise in the retail prices of the particular drugs, they explained.

“The supply of tablet Amdocal Plus, used for blood pressure, has been cut-off for the last one and a half months. We get it from Mitford at higher price and sell it for Tk 60 instead of its MRP Tk 45,” said a retailer adding that many drug manufacturers including Beximco Pharmaceuticals during the past few months have not been supplying their products as per the market demand.

Nazmul Hassan, chief executive officer of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, brushed aside the allegation saying that although the company faced a crisis last year, the company does not have any shortage in production or supply this year.

“It is the wholesalers who stock up medicines and sell those to retailers for extra profit. From our experience last year, we came to know from the retailers that they were able buy our medicines from the wholesalers during a certain period when we ceased our supply of drugs to the wholesalers,” said the Beximco CEO.

The wholesalers buy up particular drugs even from retailers, stockpile those and later sell those at higher prices, he alleged.

When the attention of the Drug Administration (DA), the government body that is entrusted with monitoring price, quality and affordability of drugs for the general public, was drawn to the drug price situation, The Daily Star was told that the DA has formed a three-member team and the team will visit drug markets in the city twice every week.

“Selling drugs over the MRP is a punishable crime. Drug licence of a drug trader could be cancelled for such an offence and cases could be filed against the trader with drug court,” said a high official of the DA requesting not to be named.

“In fact, shortage of medicine is very little. The problem lies in coordination among doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the drug control authorities,” said manager of a drugstore named United Pharmacy at Shahbagh.

“If there is a shortage of a particular brand of medicine made by a particular company, the patients could easily look for the same medicine made by a different company, but they don’t do that because the particular medicine made by the particular company was prescribed by their doctors.”

If it was mandatory to prescribe and sell drugs under their generic names, people would not go through such problems, he said adding that people have been suffering due to the imprudent policies of the government.

Prof Muniruddin Ahmed of Department of Pharmacology at University of Dhaka, said, “If the supply of medicine is sufficient, there is no scope of price hike by the retailers or wholesalers. But if the retailers or wholesalers attempt to raise the price by forming a cartel, the Drug Administration should move in and take stern action against them.”

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