Ever since the introduction of a national drug policy for Bangladesh in 1982, pharmaceutical industries in this country have gone on growing briskly. Bangladesh, today, is self sufficient in the production of all types of essential drugs. Some of these pharmaceutical industries have been like flagship enterprises in this sector producing drugs of high quality . These reputed pharmaceutical companies have also succeeded in carving out an export outlet for their products in USA, Europe and Africa.
But these successes notwithstanding, there are also reasons for concern. While the handful of drug companies here have set standards of the highest quality controls, many others, however, are noted for their hazardous performance. But now is the time when the local drug industry appears to have replaced foreign ones effectively, that these should completely allay fears of sub-standard production of drugs. This is also all the more important when Bangladeshi drug manufacturers are starting to find an international market for their products. Preserving market shares internationally and to expand the same, drug makers in Bangladesh need to absolutely ensure that they pay total attention to ensure the impeccable standard of the drugs produced by them.
The parliamentary standing committee on health found in its probe sometime ago that some drug companies were performing not up to the mark. It suggested to the official regulator, the Directorate of Drug Administration (DDA), to take action. But according to the recent report in a national daily, it still continues to be business as usual for the DDA. With its rank and file soaked in corruption, the offending drug companies are facing little difficulty in continuing with their marketing of sub standard and date barred drugs. The daily reported on how DDA officials get bribes regularly from such companies for their not taking any actions.
Human health and medical care are areas where hardly any underperformance, lapses or harms caused by low quality products, can be permitted or tolerated because the same directly affect human lives or physical well-being of humans. Realization of this factor all the time should keep the regulators motivated to do their job thoroughly and efficiently. But since this has not been happening, it has become a matter of very great importance from the standpoint of public health that such unscrupulousness pervading the ranks of the DDAshould be promptly scrutinized and severe actions taken against the corrupt ones.
Apart from the sub standard drugs of some duly licensed and registered drug companies, there are also underground activities of spurious producers. Recently, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) found out two such underground operators. It was revealed that one of them was making antibiotic capsules by putting wheat flour in them. The declared antibiotic was not found in them. Thus, it takes no stretch of the imagination to realize what grave threats to public health are being created by these fake drug producers whose products are being marketed among unsuspecting people.
Therefore, not only the underperforming regular companies should be monitored regularly and scrupulously to ensure quality of their products , it is more important to absolutely root out makers and distributors of fake medicines.
