Chattogram’s Albion now set to export meds to Myanmar, Cambodia

After Afghanistan, Chattogram-based Albion Laboratories Ltd, a company of the Albion Group, is set to export medicines to Myanmar and Cambodia.

The company is scheduled to ship $30,000 worth of medicines to Myanmar later this month, while another shipment of eight types of medicines worth $23,000 to Cambodia is on the cards next month.

Albion Laboratories Ltd has so far made two shipments to Afghanistan – worth $55,000 and $65,000 respectively. Their first shipment to the country was on 9 June last year. Currently, the company is preparing to ship $1,29,000 worth of medicines to the country, where it is exporting 35 different types of products.

The Chattogram-based company is in the process of exporting medicines to Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Yemen.

Raisul Uddin Saikat, chairman of Albion Group, said that the raw materials of medicines produced in the country have to be imported from abroad.

"We pay a duty of 10-40% to import these raw materials. In exporting the medicines, we compete with India, which makes medicines using their own raw materials. As a result, we are lagging behind in the competition in prices," he said, calling on the government to provide duty-free import of raw materials to increase exports.

He also said that the pharmaceutical sector is currently a growing sector after the ready-made garments.

"The domestic market of this sector is Tk28,000 crores. The government collects a duty of at least Tk8,000 crores on the import of raw materials for these medicines," he added.

According to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, $169 million or Tk1,436 crore worth of medicines were exported from Bangladesh to 123 countries in the 2020-21 fiscal year. The largest export has been to neighbouring Myanmar followed by Sri Lanka.

According to the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) data, the share of Bangladeshi medicines in Sri Lanka's drug market is 7.4% while it is 4.53% in Myanmar.

Albion Laboratories obtained the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate on 13 January 13 last year.

Medicines manufactured by Albion are marketed under generic names as well as branded names abroad. The company is manufacturing various types of complex and international quality medicines including tablets, capsules, injections. With increasing export demand, the company is increasing investment in its Sitakunda plant.

Officials of the company say, their next export targets include Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines. In the next phase they want to export to the African countries of Sudan, Ghana, Somalia, Cameroon and Nigeria. They are also targeting Malaysia, which is focusing on reducing China's influence in the Malaysian drug market.

Under the leadership of Md Nezam Uddin, Albion Laboratories Limited started producing 15 types of drugs on a small scale with 100 workers in 1991.

In 2006, Nezam Uddin's son Raisul Uddin Saikat finished his studies in Australia and took the helm of Albion. In 2007, the company expanded its production operations at a 50,000 square feet plant in Barabkunda, Sitakunda.

At present, Albion Group has started its pharmaceutical manufacturing operations on an area of 1,40,000 square feet. Employment will reach 3,000 as the Albion Specialized Pharma Limited goes into production.

Albion currently has 377 products in the market with the approval for more than 450 drugs.