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In an interview with Nirjal Dhungana of nepalnews.com, Umesh Lal Shrestha, president, Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal (APPON), urged the government to come up with well orchestrated strategies to protect and promote domestic pharma companies. He also believes this sort of move will go a long way in reducing the country’s dependency on foreign pharmaceutical producers to a great extent. Excerpts:
How well Nepali pharma sector is moving?
The sector is still in its infancy. As a matter of fact, the sector begun to take a modern shape in early 80s. And it was only in late 90s that the sector started witnessing a proliferation in the number of pharmaceutical companies. As of today, we have 44 domestic pharmaceutical industries. Likewise, 200 pharma companies mainly from Indian and Bangladesh are also operating as major players in the country. To sum up, the country’s pharma sector is growing at a healthy clip.
How do you asses the quality benchmark of domestic pharmaceutical companies?
Of course, when we talk about arithmetic aspect of pharma sector, it will be sheer injustice to overlook quality factor. Out of the total of 44 domestic companies, 18 have been awarded with WHO-GMP certification. And, the rest have been recognized with National GMP certification. So, this is a perfect testimony to the fact that products of Nepali pharmaceutical companies comply with required quality standards. And, of course they are in position to compete with foreign ones.
What do you think are the major factors that are hindering the domestic pharma sector?
Well, the question is very pertinent. First of all, the government has been lackadaisical towards facilitating the growth of domestic pharma sector. It has already been two decades that we have been asking the concerned authorities for some visionary support. However, it is frustrating to say that there has been no institutional support on the part of the state. If the concerned bodies had shown a scintilla of seriousness to stimulate the domestic drugs companies, their growth would have been much more robust and vigorous. As of now, domestic companies are catering to only 35 percent of the total demand of pharmaceutical products in the country. And, the rest is being fulfilled by importing foreign products. Undeniably, it is not possible for any country to be fully self-reliant in pharmaceutical sector. Even the most developed countries are not self-dependent in pharma products. In any country, the government lends support to any growing industry.
Since Nepali pharma sector is among the fast-growing industries, it behooves the government to lend justifiable support to buttress its growth. However, the same is not happening in our case.
What sort of support you are seeking exactly from the government?
The government should bring well-defined laws to protect the local phrama firms from the onslaught of giant foreign producers. We don’t have to go very far to see how other countries have framed protective laws to ensure the consistent growth of their local companies.
For instance, India and Bangladesh have introduced such protective legislative mechanisms that have prevented foreign pharma producers to expand their presence in these countries.This strategy has resulted in the phenomenal growth of pharma industries in India and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, there are 200 pharma companies and all of them are domestic. Unfortunately, in our context, there is no single law that is designed to promote the domestic pharma sector. And, the most unfortunate part is that Nepali pharma sector has not yet been conferred with the status of one of most essential industries.
In the context of globalization and liberal economy, how suitable is it to clamour for protection from the state?
In today’s globalised world, I am not saying that Nepali pharma sector is in need of complete protection on the part of state. At the same time, I also do not mean that the government should immediately stop importing foreign drugs. The sector has become strong and stable in a considerable number of aspects. We are providing a wide range of quality pharma products at a very economical rate. So, the government does not need to import those products in which we have competitive edge. The government does not seem to be well aware of various structural and legal problems that have long been dogged the sector. The imposition of an exorbitant 40 percent customs duty while importing equipments related to quality control is a case in point. These equipments are expensive and the imposition of import duty of this magnitude has only discouraged us from pouring adequate investment into research and development. What I trying to convey is that the government has grossly overlooked the fact that the pharmaceutical sector demands cutting-edge tools and equipments to align itself with globally evolving trends and techniques. As such, the government must pencil a package to give possible rebates to the domestic pharma sector for its smooth growth. This sort of move will also go a long way in enabling local pharma producers to compete with multinational giants. And, of course, the empowerment of local companies will play instrumental role in mitigating the country’s dependency on foreign drugs to a great extent. nepalnews.com
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