Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 219

Chapter 3
THE 8 LEADING COMPANIES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Pfizer Laboratories Ltd. US subsidiary.
Glaxo (Bangladesh) Ltd. British subsidiary.
Fisons (Bangladesh) Ltd. British subsidiary.
Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd. Joint venture company of (BPI) Bangladesh
Chemical Industries Corporation and May and Baker (UK) Ltd.
Hoechst Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. W. German subsidiary.
Squibb of Bangladesh Ltd. US subsidiary.
Organon (Bangladesh) Ltd. Dutch subsidiary.
ICI Bangladesh Manufacturers Ltd. British subsidiary.

FOREIGN CONTROL
For example: Glaxo: Glaxo Holdings controls 70% of the equity and the Government 30%.
Glaxo had 4 members on the Board to 3 Government representatives. (Information from Glaxo
(Bangladesh) 1980). ICI: the British parent company also holds 70% of the equity. Fisons:
The Bangladesh Government holds 51 % of the equity shares, but Fisons holds 51 % of controlling
shares and has 3 representatives on the board to the Government's 2. BPI: May & Baker U.K.
holds 60% of the equity; and is solely responsible for the management of the company under
a management contract.
There are 25 medium-sized national companies which manufacture a further 15 % of products
and 133 small companies that account for the remaining 10% - these produce only simple liquid
formulations.
55

Dr. H.K.M.A. Hye, then Director Drug Administration, personal communication, 7 May
1981. The Government tender is restricted to the local market for all items produced locally:
'' Procurement is by generic name but we have the constraint that the local market is dominated
(80-85%) by large brand name producers and their subsidiaries. Drugs manufactured locally
cannot be imported, even if cheaper foreign sources are available."

56

Dr. Hye in interview with the author, Delhi, 20 October 1980.

57

-

58

-

"Merck in Bangladesh Marketing Plan 1980(-1982)", December 1979. Market Estimates
1978: Taka 805 million 1981: 1,440 million 1982: 1,728 million, (p.5 - "There is a fast
growing market in Bangladesh (24%/1978).")
Sales 1977 Taka 800 million ("Country Information Paper - Bangladesh" Drug Polcies
Including Traditional Medicines in the Context of Primary Health Care, WHO Regional
Office for S.E. Asia New Delhi, November 1979.)
Drug expenditure 1981 estimated at 1,500 million taka (Expert Committee Report,
Bangladesh, 11 May 1982, op. cit. p.92.)

59

Ibid.
Dr. Hye in interview with the author, 20 October 1980.
Expert Committee Report, Bangladesh, op. cit.

60

"Merck in Bangladesh Marketing Plan 1980 (-1982)", op. cit., p.10.

61

Bristol-Myers (Bangladesh) Ethical Pharmaceutical Market in 1977 (estimates from Marketing
division). Total market 50 million dollars.
(a) vitamins, haematinics, tonics
(b) antibiotics
(c) analgesics
(d) antacids
(e) tranquilizers, antidepressants, sedatives
(f) antidiarrhoeals & anti-dysentric
(g) anti TB
(h) others 9

212

% of market
30
20
10
10
8
7
6
Total 100%