THE High Court, in a commendable move on April 29, asked the Directorate General of Health Services to take effective steps against the arbitrary price hike of essential drugs. The court gave the directive while hearing a writ petition from the Consumers Association of Bangladesh seeking redress for the incessant increase in drug prices in recent months. The consumer association鈥檚 petition is based on a media report that said that drug prices have increased by 7鈥�140 per cent in recent weeks. The prices of commonly prescribed drugs, including antibiotic tablets, insulin, and injections for diabetics, have increased the most. Drugs to treat chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and asthma also saw a significant increase. Meanwhile, the profits of the drug companies have inflated by as much as 60 per cent. The drug companies tried to justify the increase, saying that the raw material for drug production has increased in the international market. However, the price increase appears arbitrary, as the rising price of raw materials for drugs has not resulted in similar price hikes in other countries. The fact that the pharmaceutical industries are arbitrarily increasing prices is, therefore, a case of regulatory failure and proves that the directorate general of drug control has failed to perform its mandated role.
What, however, is worrying is that drug manufacturers often increase the prices of medicines without the approval of the agency and often violate the prices that the agency sets. There are also allegations that manufacturers often create an artificial supply shortage to increase prices. A supply shortage of normal and DNS saline, a medicine prescribed for blood and fluid loss in dengue cases, was reported in June 2023, when the drug administration authorities requested saline producers to increase production. Yet, supply shortages continued to jeopardise dengue treatment. Health rights activists consider the failure of the government to control the drug market a primary problem and say that drug producers cannot set prices for life-saving medicines. The drug administration has also failed to regulate sales of drugs and to control the quality of drugs manufactured, resulting in a high prevalence of counterfeit medicines on the market. On a number of occasions, the drug administration decided to increase the price of essential drugs, entertaining the profit-seeking interests of the drug companies. In July 2022, the government decided to increase the prices of 19 generic drugs from 53 brands, as the producers had threatened to stop production unless the prices were increased. In this context, the allegation that the public health activists made against the government that it has left the drug administration in the hands of pharmaceutical companies does not seem far from the truth.
Making safe drugs available for citizens at affordable prices is a fundamental requisite for any public health system, but the government has been negligent in drug market regulation. The government must, therefore, take action to control drug prices as directed by the High Court and immediately review the role of the drug administration in price control, quality control, and regulation of drug sales, as it is glaringly evident that it has failed to serve the interests of people.