Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has fined 9 investors Tk 428.52 crore for manipulating the shares of Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited (Beximco) listed in the stock market. The BSEC decided to impose this fine in the commission meeting held on Tuesday chaired by BSEC Chairman Khondoker Rashed Maqsood. Such a large amount of money has never been fined in the history of the country's stock market for manipulating the shares of a company, stock market stakeholders said. BSEC instructs DSE to investigate unusual price surge of Islami Bank shares Among them, Marzana Rahman was fined Tk30 crore, Trade Next International Tk4.1 crore, Mushfiqur Rahman Tk125 crore, Mumtazur Rahman Tk58 crore, Jupiter Business Tk22.50 crore, Apollo Trading Tk15.1 crore, ART International Tk70 crore, Abdur Rauf Tk31 crore and Crescent Limited was fined Tk 73 crore. Meanwhile, the commission meeting decided to inspect the use of IPO/RPO’s funds of 9 companies. The nine companies include- Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Best holding, Index Agro, JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing, Lub-rref (Bangladesh) Limited, Navana Pharmaceuticals, Ring Shine Textiles, Sikder Insurance and Silva Pharmaceuticals.

Tuesday’s (March 21, 2023) professional boxing ‘Fight Night’ at InterContinental Dhaka had everything – from Bangladeshi-origin UK boxer Ruqsana Begum’s debut win against Tanjila in a 10-round thriller to Sura Krishna Chakma’s nerve-wracking second-round knockout punch against Thai boxer Ponlawat Nanchinda. With her debut win, Ruqsana also secured the WBU Female Intercontinental Championship Belt, marking the first time female boxers competed for a championship belt in Bangladesh. During the 10-round thriller, Ruqsana’s professional boxing experience faced off against Tanjila’s aggressive fighting. However, it was Ruqsana — a former kickboxing world champion — who pulled-off the narrow win in the flyweight category. The professional boxing event was organized by Xcel Sports Management and Promotions. Also Read: 'Beximco XBC Fight Night' on March 21 A total of 14 participants from Bangladesh, England, France, India, and Thailand competed in the ring across seven different categories, including featherweight, light heavyweight, bantamweight, cruiserweight, flyweight, and welterweight. In the lightweight category, Bangladeshi professional boxer Sura Krishna Chakma came head-to-head against Thailand’s Ponlawat Nanchinda.

With joint investment from Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, Beximco Pharmaceuticals is set to start producing medicines in the kingdom from next year, Prime Minister's Private Industries and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman said on Saturday (March 11, 2023). Bangladesh will provide Saudi Arabia with manpower and technical support for the plant, he said while speaking to reporters after a visit to Beximco Pharmaceuticals with a delegation led by Saudi Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi. Rahman said, "We are committed to producing medicines, maintaining top quality. In terms of pharmaceutical exports, we must adhere to a variety of international procedures. This is why people around the world have trust in medicines produced in Bangladesh." “According to reports, the medicine produced in Bangladesh are of high quality. Besides, prices are also quite reasonable compared to other countries,” he added. Read more: Find ways to bring commodity prices to a normal level: PM tells business leaders Referring to the growth of the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh, he said the industry in the country has made good progress and made a mark in the global market. “The government is setting up a pharmaceutical park. The raw materials for medicines will be produced there very soon, which will further accelerate the growth of this industry.” Saudi Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi arrived in Dhaka on Friday afternoon to attend the Bangladesh Business Summit-2023, organized by the FBCCI in the capital. Earlier on Saturday, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia had signed three MoUs in order to strengthen economic and trade relations between the two countries. Read more: Business Summit: Deals signed with Saudi Arabia, China on first day One of the agreements would allow a Saudi company to set up gas pipelines through India and Bangladesh under a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Two MoUs were signed with Saudi Arabia for developing Rangpur Sugar Mills and Patenga Container Terminal. Later, a group led by the Saudi commerce minister visited Beximco Pharmaceuticals and met with a delegation from Beximco Pharmaceuticals. While speaking to reporters, the Saudi minister said: “Trade and investment between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have not yet reached the desired level. We will explore the trade relations between the two countries through the visit.” “We also want to harness our potential in information technology, communication, and manpower exports,” Qasabi said. Read More: Policies must to stop misuse, overuse of antibiotics: Health Minister Citing Beximco Pharmaceutical as a "world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing factory", the Saudi commerce minister said Beximco Pharmaceutical is producing medicines using all advanced technologies. Meanwhile, Nazmul Hasan Papon, managing director of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, said at least 30 types of medicines will be produced at the plant in Saudi Arabia. “Even though the plant is being constructed with joint investment from both Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh, we are providing the majority of the funds,” he said. Bangladesh is currently exporting medicines to 160 countries around the world after meeting its own demand.  Read More: Fake drug manufacturing unit busted in Dhaka, 7 held According to the Directorate General of Drug Administration, the export of medicines in the 2021–22 fiscal year was US$ 188.78 million.

Beximco Digital Distribution has signed a deal with Disney Star to distribute eight of their popular entertainment television channels across Bangladesh via paid television service through cable, IPTV, and OTT. The collaboration will see Beximco Digital distribute Disney Star's channels in the original languages of programming (Bangla, Hindi, and English) spanning three content genres – general entertainment, movies and factual or infotainment. READ: Binimoy says it can put an end to illegal digital transactions The channel portfolio will include Star Jalsha, Jalsha Movies, Star Plus, Star Gold, Star Bharat, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Wild and Fox Life. "Bangladesh has a strong affinity for our content, especially the Bangla series and format shows on our class-leading Bangla general entertainment channel – Star Jalsha. We constantly explore opportunities to connect with our audiences and this latest collaboration with Beximco Digital is a step to further reach out to the viewers in Bangladesh," Sudhir Nagpal, head of international business at Disney Star, said. READ: US-Bangla adds one more Boeing 737-800 to its fleet Tariq Alam, executive director of Beximco Digital Distribution, said: "The government's mandate to digitise cable networks will bring a significant transformation to the TV industry. This will enable more secure ways of distribution of content, ensure a best-in-class experience to audiences across the country, contribute to economic growth and benefit the National Board of Revenue." Through this collaboration, Beximco Digital will be the first distributor in Bangladesh to take broadcasting services from Bangabandhu Satellite-1 for the uplink of foreign television channels.

The Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited (BSCL) has signed an agreement with Beximco Digital Distribution Limited (BDDL) under which BDDL will use Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (BS-1) to distribute eight foreign clean-feed pay TV channels in Bangladesh. With this agreement, BDDL will be the first and the only foreign pay TV channel distributor to avail of downlinking services from BS-1, according to a media statement. Md Shafiqul Islam, managing director of BSCL, and Jamanul Bahar of BDDL signed the deal in Dhaka Thursday. "The most predominant form of TV distribution is currently through millions of analogue cable connections which have no protection for consumers, limited capacity to carry channels, poor picture quality, lack of service, lack of addressability and no interactive services and critically rampant with piracy related to the TV channels which leads to the government deprived of substantial taxation income and lower revenues for broadcasters," Shayan F Rahman, chairman of BDDL, said. "The conversion from analogue to digital television broadcasting will provide newer and more secure ways of distribution of content which include cable, IPTV, OTT and DTH," he added. Read more:Star channels are now available in AKASH DTH

Beximco Pharma has got a sub-licence from the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool to produce a generic version of Paxlovid, Pfizer's oral treatment for Covid. Beximco will manufacture this drug – a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir – in Bangladesh following successful technology transfer and manufacturing regulatory approvals. Nirmatrelvir is a novel main protease inhibitor that specifically blocks the activity of the enzyme needed for SARS-CoV2 viral replication. Read: Raise awareness about consumers’ rights: Tipu Ritonavir is a strong cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 inhibitor and pharmacokinetic boosting agent for nirmatrelvir. Paxlovid got the emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2021 for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older). The sub-licence was granted under a voluntary licencing agreement between Pfizer and Medicines Patent Pool to facilitate broader global access to this antiviral combination. Read South Sudanese delegation visits Beximco, Pran-RFL, Walton manufacturing units On 20 January 2022, Beximco got a sublicence from Medicines Patent Pool to produce another Covid drug, molnupiravir, which was developed by MSD and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. Beximco Pharma Managing Director Nazmul Hassan said: "We are delighted that Medicines Patent Pool has granted us a sub-licence to produce Pfizer's breakthrough Covid-19 treatment, which builds on the licence granted to us in January 2022 for the production of molnupiravir."

Two years after the government opened the prepaid gas metre market to the private competition, none has been able to enter the fray due to lack of enough preparation.  The government’s policy, announced in 2019, initially got enthusiastic response.  Many local and foreign companies came forward to enter the lucrative market with import, development, manufacturing, marketing and supply of smart prepaid gas metre for consumers.  Read:Erratic gas supply hits hard residents at Demra, neighbouring areas None of these companies has so far succeeded in their ventures. Officials at the state-owned Petrobangla, responsible for setting the standard and technical specifications for the metres, said they are still hopeful about the arrival of the private sector. “Already a good number of companies made demonstrations of their metres and those were enthusiastic. We hope they will be able to meet our standard and technical specifications and finally come to the market”, said Habib Uddin Ahmed, general manager (engineering), and head of the technical committee of the Petrobangla. Read  HC rules on govt decision to not provide new household gas connections He, however, said it takes some time to meet our compliances as the things are new and such ventures involve huge investment. Many of the companies are studying the market first and then they will either move for importing metres or setting up plants to manufacture locally. So they need time for their preparation, he added. Sources said local Beximco and Bangladesh Smart Electrical Company Ltd., a joint venture of West Zone Power Distribution company and Chinese firm Hexing Electrical Co. Ltd, are among those showing interest in the business.  Read No cash or gas to run from Ida: ‘We can’t afford to leave’ They said the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources took up the move for opening smart prepaid metre market for private sector in 2019. After a long discussion with the stakeholders, it published a gazette notification on December 4 in 2019 setting a detailed standard, technical specifications and compliances for the smart pre-paid metres. It also invited private companies to come to the market with their own devices by taking approval from the Petrobangla. Read:Titas Gas seeks foreign funding for installing 1.25 million prepaid metres in Dhaka city

The country's leading manufacturer and exporter of medicine Beximco Pharmaceuticals has acquired a 54.6% stake in Sanofi Bangladesh. The acquisition is the biggest in Bangladesh's pharmaceutical industry's history. A brief ceremony took place Thursday at a city hotel to mark the occasion. Beximco Pharma Managing Director Nazmul Hassan MP, BCIC Chairman Shah Md Imdadul Haque, SM Alam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Industries, and senior officials from both companies attended the event. Nazmul Hassan said, "The completion of this deal is a major milestone for us. We have a clear strategy to continue our diversification and expansion, strengthening our position as a market-leading pharma company in Bangladesh. Read: 100 million Beximco PPE Park launched in Savar "We look forward to welcoming over 800 skilled and diligent Sanofi Bangladesh employees to our existing workforce. As an enlarged group, we are excited to continue our growth trajectory by delivering affordable treatments and breakthrough therapies in our growing domestic market," he added. Sanofi Bangladesh, part of global biopharmaceutical company Sanofi SA, started operating in the country in 1958 as part of British chemical company May & Baker. Following a series of mergers, it became known as Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, before being renamed Sanofi Bangladesh in 2013. Sanofi's manufacturing facility is located near Beximco in Tongi and the company is producing around 100 branded generic products – mainly for the local market. It has a strong presence in cardiology, diabetes, oncology, and dermatology. The company also supplies its global brands of vaccines, insulins and chemotherapy drugs to Bangladesh through direct imports.

Bangladesh will get 21 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the first week of May, said DG of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam on Sunday. “Most of these vaccine doses will be imported by Beximco Pharmaceuticals,” he told reporters following an online discussion meeting marking World Malaria Day. Among the doses, one lakh are of COVAX while Serum Institute of India will supply the rest, Khurshid Alam said. Also read: How long does protection from COVID-19 vaccines last? “We’ll continue administering the first doses of the vaccine alongside completing the second doses,” the DG said, adding, “We’ll also get vaccine/s from China as a gift. The Covid-19 National Technical Advisory Committee will take the decision on how those will be administered.” He also told the journalists that three of the local pharmaceutical companies have the capacity to produce Covid-19 vaccines. As the deadly variant of the virus is being spread rapidly across India, a proposal has been sent to the authorities concerned to stop all the communications with the neighbouring country, except the transportation of emergency goods, he said. Read Around 6,000 Americans contracted Covid after being fully vaccinated, 74 died: CDC

Beximco on Wednesday launched its $100 million personal protective equipment (PPE) production plant in Savar.