• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.39-45
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• 2021

Purpose: This study is designed to investigate the extent and nature of climate change disclosure of listed pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: In order to perform this research, a content analysis methodology is used. A climate change disclosure index is constructed to examine 12 different climate change disclosure issues. Information is collected from the annual reports of 29 pharmaceutical companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange for the year 2019. Results: This study finds that only 48.28% of the sample companies provided disclosure on at least one issue regarding climate change. 'Energy savings' is the mostly disclosed issue whereas 'Pollution control expenditure', 'Biodiversity conservation initiatives' are the least disclosed issues. Research implication: This study concludes 64.29% of the companies examined, use less than five sentences for climate change disclosure, which depicts unsatisfactory disclosure practices regarding climate change issues. Study findings would be helpful for different industries of Bangladesh to implement efficient climate change reporting Practice. Future studies can be conducted on other industries to obtain more comprehensive result.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to find out the intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and its determinants in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry of Bangladesh. Research design, data, and methodology - This research study is conducted on the listed firms of pharmaceutical and chemical industry in Bangladesh during the period of 2016 to 2017. This study develops a self-structured intellectual capital disclosure index; and the proxies of determinants of ICD are used as board characteristics (board size, independent directors and female directors), ownership structures (institutional ownership and director ownership), and firm characteristics (firm size, leverage and performance). The study uses a content analysis to analyze the extent of ICD and a pooled cross-sectional method to find the determinants of ICD. Research Findings - This study finds that intellectual capital disclosure is positively associated with firm size, leverage, and firm performance and negatively associated with director ownership and institutional ownership. This study also finds that there is no significant association of ICD with independent director or female director. Conclusions - The study recommends that the regulatory authority should develop mandatory guidelines on ICD for ensuring proper and consistent disclosure about the intellectual capitals. Besides, the companies should include a separate section in the annual reports to disclose the measurement and management of intellectual capital.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.268-279
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• 2023

The pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh produces a diverse range of antibiotics for human and animal use, however, waste disposal management is inadequate. This results in substantial quantities of antibiotics being discharged into water bodies, which provide suitable environment for the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, capable of spreading resistance genes. This study intended for exploring the bacterial antibiotic resistance profile in adjoining aquatic environmental sources of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh. Seven surface water samples were collected from the vicinity of two pharmaceutical industries located in the Savar area and 51 Escherichia coli isolates were identified using both phenotypic and genotypic methods. Antibiotic susceptibility tests revealed the highest percentage of resistance against ampicillin, azithromycin, and nalidixic acid (100%) and the lowest resistance against meropenem (1.96%) out of sixteen different antibiotics tested. 100% of the study E. coli isolates were observed with Multidrug resistance phenotypes, with the Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) value ranging from 0.6-1.0. Furthermore, 69% of the isolates were Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBL) positive as per the Double Disk Diffusion Synergy Test (DDST). ESBL resistance genes bla_TEM, bla_CTX-M-13, bla_CTX-M-15, and bla_SHV were detected in 70.6% (n = 36), 60.8% (n = 32), 54.9% (n = 28), and 1.96% (n = 1) of the isolates, respectively, by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Additionally, 15.68% (n = 8) of the isolates were positive for E. coli specific virulence genes in PCR. These findings suggest that pharmaceutical wastewater, if not properly treated, could be a formidable source of antibiotic resistance spread in the surrounding aquatic environment. Therefore, continued surveillance for drug resistance among bacterial populations around drug manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh is necessary, along with proper waste disposal management.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.35-44
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• 2022

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to find out the impact of ownership structure on firm performance in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry of Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: The study has been conducted on 28 listed pharmaceutical and chemical companies from 2012 to 2020. Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q are selected as indicators of internal and market performance of the firms respectively whereas institutional ownership, directors' ownership and foreign ownership are selected as proxies of ownership structure. Panel analysis using random effects, lag method and time dummy method is used to analyse the relationship. Results: The study has found the existence of highly concentrated directors' ownership, a low percentage of institutional ownership and a very insignificant proportion of foreign ownership in the industry. The regression results show that directors' ownership has a positive and significant impact on firm performance, supporting the concept of agency theory. The study has also found a positive and significant impact of foreign ownership on firm performance. Unfortunately, the impact of institutional ownership is found to be insignificant. Conclusions: Directors' ownership and foreign ownership decreases agency cost that ultimately increases firm performance. However, the role of institutional investors is not significant enough to improve firm performance. It is suggested that institutional investors should be more active and involved in monitoring the activities of the organisations to improve performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2020

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on firm performance in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry of Bangladesh. In this study, 21 listed pharmaceutical and chemical companies have been selected as sample for 2016 and 2017. This study used the intellectual capital disclosure index developed by Rahman, Sobhan, and Islam. Return on assets and return on equity have been used as the proxy variable of firm performance. In this study, content analysis is performed to assess the level of disclosure regarding intellectual capital and pooled cross-sectional analysis is used to assess the relationship between ICD and firm performance. The study has found a positive and significant relationship between ICD and firm performance. Besides, an in-depth analysis of this study shows that all the components of ICD namely internal capital disclosure, external capital disclosure, and human capital disclosure are also positively and significantly associated with firm performance. The study suggests the development of an intellectual capital disclosure framework by the regulatory authority for mandatory compliance. This will improve the quality and quantity of ICD in the annual reports. Besides, firms should more emphasize on ICD which will help to improve their performance.