1.1 Industry Background:
The total industry can broadly be classified into two categories. Theses are
a) Patent Medicines
b) Generic Medicines
Patent medicines are the products that are invented by the company, who have their own research team working on their own laboratories. These products are patented for many years to enjoy the monopoly market. After years of business the formulation is sold in the market so that others can go into mass production.
Generic medicines are the products that are produced in mass scale. These are marketed by several companies under different brand name, where the formulation of this product is almost same. Prices of the products are under this category are competitive. Bangladesh mainly concentrates on this category, as labor cost is one of the lowest in the world.
1.2 Growth & Trends:
The growth potential of pharmaceutical industry is enormous. As urban population is increasing and people are getting educated, they are now more concerned about healthcare. So the demands of medical products are rising. In Bangladesh unhygienic conditions and poor health maintenance plans provide vast scope for the pharmaceutical firms to sell their products. On the other hand, the constant natural disasters provide opportunities to pharmaceutical companies to boost its sales. The industry is growing the protection of national Drug Policy 1982. But after the GATT regulation, changes are bound to take place. Furthermore, the trend & growth of this industry tends to be positive as the demand of medicines is rising, which have mentioned earlier. 1.3 Demand:
Bangladesh is prone to tropical diseases, and this leads to a high demand for pharmaceutical goods. Because of this and the poor health and hygiene situations, a steady growth in the pharmaceutical sector is possible. Demand is positively related to the changes in disposable income. Assuming that income per capita will continue to