Bangladesh is a country that used to be associated with poverty, but it now has its own pharmaceutical industry, and is trying to get a foothold in the low-priced medicine market dominated by India. The Bangladeshi pharmaceutical industry had a total market size of US$830 million in 2009 and manufactures some 10,000 drugs.

Medicine prices in the Philippines are high hence the message from the prime minister that ‘the import of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical products to the Philippines would bring down the prices of medicines in the Filipino market’ thus helping locals ‘avail themselves of better health’.

Medicines produced in Bangladesh are cheaper due to their minimal production cost and the fact that the country produces its own raw materials. Use of medicines imported from Bangladesh could bring down medicine costs in the Philippines by 35–40% if bilateral agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed between the two countries in 2012, which encourage the import of drugs from Bangladesh, are implemented.

The prime minister is therefore stressing the importance of holding regular meetings of the Joint Trade Commission between Bangladesh and the Philippines and the strengthening of existing bilateral relations.

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