THE recent hike in prices of medicines, including the lifesaving ones, is indeed alarming. As mentioned in a report … all the leading pharmaceutical companies have increased the prices of a large portion of their products by up to 20 per cent [in] one go since Feb 1 on the plea that the import cost of raw materials has shot up following the appreciation of [the] dollar in recent months.

They have also hinted at increasing the price of the rest of their products soon. The Drug Administration, which is supposed to regulate and monitor price, quality, etc of medicines … can set the maximum retail price of only 117 listed generic items, according to officials, whereas 261 pharmaceutical companies in the country produce more than 2,200 brands. The evident inadequacy of the state’s control over pricing naturally seems to have allowed the drug companies a free hand.

While the government approved increase in the price of 30 items in August 2011, the president of the Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh alleged that there had been an upward trend of drug prices … ‘for around a year and a half’. The rise in medicine prices came at a time when people in general and low- and middle-income groups in particular are already reeling under the soaring prices of essential commodities. As there has hardly been any substantial increase in their real income in the past three years or so, people … are forced to cut down on their food intake….

It is true that pharmaceutical companies have reasons to take measures to cope with unbridled inflation, thanks to the incumbent Awami League-Jatiya Party government’s macroeconomic mismanagement. However, exorbitant hike in the price of medicines, which would practically deny a large section of the populace of proper medical care, must not be the way to make such adjustments. That said, it needs to be pointed out that pricing of medicine cannot be left … to the pharmaceutical industry’s whims and wishes. Hence, the government needs to come up with effective steps to protect the consumers’ interests and chalk [out] an effective strategy to keep … medicine prices within the reach of the majority of the people.—(Feb 20)