As part of the company's massive business initiatives to expand pharmaceuticals products to international market, Eskayef Bangladesh will initially export 12 products to Sri Lankan market.

The products that Eskayef is going to launch in the Lankan market include Esoral tablet, Losectil capsule, Zithrox tablet, Zithrox suspension, Folex capsule, Dialon tablet, Dilator tablet, Facid Cream and Facid ointment.

"As Sri Lankan market has huge demand for drugs, we want to be among the top three pharmaceutical ventures in Sri Lanka by 2010. The company has already applied for registration of 44 more products in Sri Lanka," said A M Faruque, managing director of Eskayef Bangladesh Ltd, at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.

Gamini S Munasinghe, Sri Lankan high commissioner to Bangladesh, also spoke at the press briefing.

The high commissioner said Bangladesh has huge potential to export drugs to Lanka.

He said as Eskayef is a renowned company, its market operations in Sri Lanka will help strengthen relations between the two countries.

Faruque said, "Eskayef uses most advanced technologies for quality control in every stage of the manufacturing process. For this reason, the company has received very good response from Nepal, Vietnam and Bhutan."

Eskayef, the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh in terms of turn over, is also planning to export products to Myanmar, Hong Kong and Bulgaria, Faruque added.