Problem and Prospect of Pharmaceuticals Industry of Bangladesh amid LDC Graduation

Aims: The paper aims to identify the prospects and challenges of the pharmaceutical sector of Bangladesh after graduation and explores potential areas of market and product diversification. Addressing the upcoming graduation challenges, the paper sheds light on trade-related challenges of pharmaceutical industry and digs out a way forward.

Study Design: The study is conducted using primary data from the Key Informant Interview (KII) and secondary data from different publications and sources. A qualitative survey tool is used for assessing the view of stakeholders and graduation challenges for pharmaceutical sector.

Methodology: The study uses qualitative tools to evaluate the area of market and product diversification of the pharmaceutical industry and finally uses the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to forecast export figure from 2023 to 2032 and what interventions need to be taken to reach the expected level of growth amid LDC graduation.

Results: The pharmaceutical industry will confront significant hurdles in terms of value addition, TRIPS-waiver erosion, patent payments, and license fees for producing pharmaceuticals product and medicine after graduation. Moreover, the industry faces difficulties due to excessive reliance on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) imports, limited diversified products, lack of Research and Development (R&D) and lab testing facilities, lack of infrastructure in the API park, dearth of bioequivalence test facilities, and patentable molecules in the post-graduation era.

Recommendation: Bangladesh needs to accentuate API production, R&D, reverse engineering, and technical know-how as well as make a functional API Park, develop a curriculum to have experts in synthesis chemistry, and establish an accredited bioequivalence study center to secure patentable molecules and API.