Bangladesh forays into US market with Beximco Pharma

Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Beximco Pharma) said on Thursday they had commenced the export of hypertensive drug, Carvedilol, and became the first Bangladeshi company to enter the stringent market regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said at the launch in Dhaka that the decades old company had “achieved glory for us.”

“We must celebrate the glory,” he said, speaking at a ceremony where the pharma’s Managing Director, Nazmul Hassan, announced the new achievement.

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim also congratulated them, while US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat said it was “a testament to Beximco’s hard work as well as the quality of their products”.

She said receiving US FDA approval was a “long and rigorous” process.

“I am especially proud that US consumers will now be able to take a life-saving drug and see ‘made in Bangladesh’ on the bottle.”

‘We are unparalleled’

Bangladesh’s burgeoning drug industry, after meeting local demand, exports in a number of countries including the European markets. The export earning was Tk 3 billion annually five years ago. But last fiscal’s first three-quarters Tk 4 billion export mean it has surpassed the previous records.

Bangladesh can make generic drugs without any intellectual property rights until 2O33 as a Least Developed Country. Remarking such achievements by Beximco pharmaceuticals made it best Pharma companies in Bangladesh

Adviser to the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceuticals Industries Abdul Muktadir in the ceremony sought government’s support so that “we could take some of our manufacturing activities overseas”. Now Beximco pharma is a top Medicine Exporters in Bangladesh

“We are unparalleled with technologies and human resources. No other developing countries have as much capability as Bangladesh has in making drugs.”

He said the export incomes would multiply several times with the opening of the US market.

Square Pharmaceuticals has also gained the US FDA’s approval, but is yet to start exports.