Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 130

COMPARATIVE RETAIL PRICES BETWEEN GONOSHASTHAYA
PHARMACEUTICALS LIMITED (GPL)
AND OTHER MANUFACTURERS IN BANGLADESH, APRIL 1982
Maximum retail prices per
capsule/tablet in paisa
(100 paise = 1 taka)
Drugs
Unit
GPL
Profit
cost
GPL
OTHERS
to GPL
ampicillin
(250mg)

76.2

6.5797o

100

tetracycline
(250mg)

38.4

5.26%

50

Squibb 110
Pfizer 106
Albert David 77

metronidazole

25.6

22.7%

40

BPI 79
(200 mg tab)
Square 65

11.7

3.41%

15

Fisons 24
Square 25

diazepam
(5mg)

7.1

36.6%

12.5

Roche 55
Square 30

frusemide

26

85.6%

60

Hoechst 125

(250mg)
paracetamol
(500mg)

Source: Chowdhury & Chowdhury,

Hoechst 186
Square 175
Beecham 169

"Essential Drugs for the Poor" (see ref. 5)

Prices will not be kept low at the expense of quality. GPL is a modern factory,
with quality control facilities comparable to the local big name producers. GPL
aims to be competitive by going for large-scale production, taking advantage of
modern machinery, production and management techniques. The factory has
42,000 sq ft of floor space, making it one of the largest in Bangladesh. It was
built with capital provided mainly by the Dutch charity NOVIB, a loan from the
Bangladesh Shilpa (Industrial) Bank and further contributions from OXFAM
and Christian Aid. <7) Although GPL has had to rely on foreign donor agencies
to provide the initial capital and the International Dispensary Association in
Holland for technical assistance, the underlying objective of the project is selfreliance. Designs for the factory building, air-conditioning and machinery layout were all planned and executed by Bangladeshis. Similarly, the production,
quality control and marketing managers are all Bangladeshis who have gained
valuable experience in the past working for big foreign manufacturers.
There are plans to carry out research into using locally available raw materials
as excipients (the non-medicinal ingredients like starch that are mixed with the
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