Essential Drugs Company Limited (EDCL) is the only 100% state-owned drug manufacturer. It was established in 1962 as a government pharmaceutical laboratory. Pharmaceuticals manufacturing unit was named in 1979. It was registered as a public limited company under the Companies Act in 1983 as Essential Drugs Company Limited (EDCL). EDCL was established with the aim of supplying quality medicines at affordable prices to various government hospitals and other healthcare institutions. Initially, the state-owned enterprise functioned as a procurement and distribution agency for the government. Later, EDCL started manufacturing medical products. Currently, the company is supplying medicines to the government as per the demand of the people. Medicines are also being exported abroad. Since the beginning, the medicines produced by the company have been supplied to government hospitals, civil surgeon offices, government health institutions all over the country, as well as to non-profit international organizations such as the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Fertility Research Center, Bangladesh (ICDDRB).
The 60-year-old institution has not lost its charm. Under the hands of the current managing director, EDCL has become a world-class manufacturing company. EDCL is supplying 80 percent of the requirement of government hospitals and health care institutions and 100 percent of the requirement of community clinics. EDCL is producing 70 percent of the total production of drugs.
According to EDCL`s quality assurance and manufacturing department, the production is done through toll manufacturing, maintaining all quality standards under the direct supervision of technical skilled persons. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof Dr. Ehsanul Kabir Jaglul. He is working continuously under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the supervision of Minister of Health and Family Welfare Zahid Malek. This institution has now FDR. He brought the institution in order, reduced additional costs, focused on increasing the scope of work. He has played a leading role in protecting the interests and rights of workers. He has also played a role in establishing positive relations with donor organizations. EDCL has appointed a doctor and his assistant for the workers. In a conversation about the various activities carried out, he told the daily post, my first job was to bring order to the institution. Because there was no discipline in several sectors. Bring order to those sectors and reduce unnecessary expenditure. I have also done FDR in the name of the institution.
How to deal with challenges in the implementation of the initiative? In a supplementary question about this change, Management means to manage, Management is not order. If the basic character of an officer is found to be different, it cannot be fixed by order. To be fixed through counselling. Because, such officers or employees are usually aggressive. If you order him, he will become more furious. He needs to talk about his bad actions through counselling. Meanwhile, about EDCL, Planning Minister MA Mannan recently said that the government established Essential Drugs so that private drug companies cannot monopolize or sell drugs at higher prices. Especially in the country`s market, private companies cannot manipulate the price of medicines, so the activities of this company are conducted.
According to EDCL, currently EDCL has six plants and projects across the country including Dhaka. Among these, medicines are produced in Dhaka and Bogra plants. Another project was launched in Dhaka in 1983, Bogra in 1985, Madhupur in Khulna and Tangail in 2010, Gopalganj in 2011 and finally another project in Bogra in 2013. After the 2016 floods, it started producing water purification tablets. At present the company is producing about 150 medicines of 97 generics. According to EDCL, the company manufactures quality medicines by using domestic and foreign raw materials and packaging materials. The company has taken the initiative to increase the production capacity to ensure the health care of the people of the country by making essential and life-saving medicines according to the government`s demand. For this reason, the work of shifting the capital`s Tejgaon factory to Manikganj has started.
It is targeted for completion by 2026. Five new units will be launched in Manikganj. Among these, the new project plans to set up units for manufacturing tablets, lyophilized powders, liquids, capsules and dry syrups and sterile. Apart from this, by preparing injectable drugs, the government can be assisted in combating the outbreak of various diseases and foreign exchange can be saved. 11 vaccines are administered to people of different ages for 13 diseases in the country. These vaccines are imported into the country through UNICEF and Gandhi. However, the government wants to make all types of vaccines in the country. For that purpose, a high-quality laboratory and a vaccine manufacturing factory are being built in Gopalganj. Khulna as one of the units of EDCL. A condom factory named Essential Latex Project (KELP) has been set up in Khulna. A latex processing plant has been established at Madhupur in Tangail under the Khulna project. Locally collected high quality rubber fibers are processed and supplied to Khulna KLP. EDCL`s Gopalganj plant in Gopalganj manufactures birth control pills and injections. IV fluid is also produced in one of its units. It will be possible to produce all types of vaccines in this plant, said the concerned.
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