The 14th Asia Pharma Expo 2023 (APE 2023) and Asia Lab Expo 2023 were successfully held over three days at the ICCB, Dhaka in Bangladesh in early March.
The international exhibitions covering complete pharma manufacturing technologies and drew 658 exhibiting companies from 32 countries. Organisers said there had been 12,000 trade visitors to the shows.
APE was celebrating 21 successful years in Bangladesh and helping to develop a sector that has been making a significant contribution to the Bangladesh economy.
Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries BAPI president, Nazmul Hassan, MP opened the exhibition and the director general of the Drug Administration Major General Mohammad Yousuf and Ravi Uday Bhaskar, director general, PHAMEXCIL were special guests of honour.
Nazmul Hassan told the opening ceremony audience: “The price of medicine hasn't gone up that much when compared to our production expenses. Besides, you cannot just hike up the prices of medicine as we have to take into consideration people's purchasing power. So we all have to work together to provide quality medicines at low prices in such difficult times. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are suffering from a shortage of drugs... By working together, we will be able to overcome this difficult situation. Despite the tough times, the pharma industry grew by 12-15% last year.”
BAPI vice-president Mr A. Mukadir said: “We need to increase our exports to save foreign exchange. Also if API raw materials are produced locally, we will be able to save more and we are going towards that direction.”
Mr Isa Khan, associate director of Saka International who had the largest pavilion in the Expo, said that among their 27 partners, were two companies from Italy and UAE exhibiting in 2023 for the first time at the show. “They are seeing a huge potential of the drug market in Bangladesh.” Asked about the products with high demand, he replied that machinery with the latest technologies for smooth operation had been attracting the most interest.
The Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow to be worth around $6bn by 2025 with an absolute growth of 114% from 2019 levels, while the pharma exports of Bangladesh are likely to top $450m by 2025.
