Editorial Desk :
Though this year in February, the cabinet approved the draft of the Drugs and Cosmetic Bill-2023 allowing a penalty of Taka 20,000 to life-term imprisonment for different offences, it’s an open secret that some drug traders are doing their illicit business almost freely across the country. News media several times reported that fake life-saving drugs have flooded the country’s markets. In our observation, the lack of surveillance by law enforcement agencies and methods to verify the drugs’ originality are two main reasons behind the present situation. Substandard and fake medicines can cause treatment failure and have adverse impacts on patients. They can also increase mortality and raise the chance of antibiotic resistance.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) with the help of USAID set up six portable labs that would maximise the capacity of the directorate in checking drugs either fake or original. Before that, the DGDA had only two labs to monitor 40,285 products from 858 local pharmaceutical companies and a lot of imported medicines. The mini-labs will relieve the drug administration, though very little, in its acute inadequacy of resources, manpower and laboratory facilities.
Rural people, who are believed to be unaware of the situation, are generally the victims of adulterated medicines. Recently, a lot of people are being cheated by buying adulterated insulin. As telecommunication became cheaper and widespread in the country, it is not difficult to initiate verifying systems by manufacturers, importers or drug administration. Two local companies, however, have introduced SMS-based authentication services in the country and several mobile apps also provide the image of original drugs though the apps are not known to all. But still, according to the drug makers, an estimated Tk 600 crore of counterfeit medicines is traded in the Tk 18,000 crore medicine market in Bangladesh each year.
It is now imperative that all the major drug manufacturers should be brought under one umbrella app by the Health Ministry. The steps of the government to stop the counterfeiting of drugs would hopefully pull the mad rush of drug counterfeiting. Drug officials must be sincere as the issue directly involves public health.
