Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned for taking measures to reduce the prices of medicine and stents.
“Reports are being published in media. The prices of medicine cannot go up suddenly,” he told reporters after emerging from a meeting at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said that officials concerned at the Directorate General of Drug Administration have sat for a meeting to fix the prices of medicine and stents, placed inside a narrowed coronary artery after balloon angioplasty.
The minister also asked the health secretary to run discussion with the pharmaceutical company owners to reduce the price of medicine and stents.
“It is needed to look into why the prices of medicine are going up.
What are the reasons behind it and what the logic of price hike is?” he said.
Speaking about the recent deaths of children at several hospitals, the minister said, “The ministry cannot avoid accountability for the deaths of children. There are so many irregularities in the health sector. Being the minister, none of which can be overlooked.”
Mentioning that the campaign against illegal healthcare institutions will continue, the minister said, “The campaign will continue against illegal hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centres.”
Over taking treatment, the minister advised the people to take treatment from those institutions which have the facilities.
“Getting no treatment is better than getting the wrong treatment. Treatment should be taken where facilities are available,” he said.
Bangladesh is fully dependent on foreign suppliers to meet the demand for around 45,000 cardiac stents per year, mainly imported from United States of America and Europe.
After months of negotiation with the suppliers, the drug administration recently reduced the maximum retail price (MRP) of different types of coronary stents by 20 per cent to 43 per cent.
According to Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) circular, the new rates have come into effect from 16 December 2023.
According to the DGDA’s latest decision, the MRPs of 41 cardiac stents, out of the total 44, have been set at a cost ranging between Tk 14,000 and Tk 93,500.
The price of the remaining three stents— Xience Alpine, Resolute Onyx and Synergy – have been set at Tk 1,40,500 each. The MRP of these stents had increased to around Tk 200,000, as the DGDA adjusted the higher dollar rate with the price of all cardiac stents last year.
The MRPs of 20 types of stents have been set between Tk 53,000 and Tk 58,000 while the MRPs of four other stents have been set between Tk 60,000 and Tk 70,000.
Besides, the MRP of two stents has been set around Tk 75,000 and two others at Tk 93,500.
The MRPs of the remaining 13 stents have been set below Tk50,000, according to the DGDA circular.
After the meeting, health secretary Jahangir Alam said that the price of stents has not been hiked.
“The price of stents remain unchanged,” he said, adding that they could not run the discussions to fix the price of medicine due to time constraint.
