Ensuring reasonable drug prices

The government has recently approved in principle the draft of the Drugs Act, 2022 with harsher punishment for drug-related anomalies and offences. Under the draft law, the punishment for such crimes will reportedly be maximum 10-year jail with a fine of Tk 1.0 million. In the existing law, the punishment for such crimes is three-year jail with a fine of Tk 200,000. The offences, for which the maximum punishment were kept in the draft law, include production or import of drugs without licences; production, import, export, marketing, stocking, sale or showcasing of drugs without registration; production, sale, stocking or marketing adulterated drugs; and stealing and selling government's drugs.

We welcome the proposed law. However, many of us expected that it would introduce a provision that would make the Directorate General of Drug Administration fix the retail price for each and every drug.

Bangladesh's first drug policy was adopted in 1982. The policy made it mandatory for the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) to fix retail prices of essential drugs. So, people could buy medicine at reasonable a price. In 1990s' a 500-milligram paracetamol tablet was available at Tk 0.10, while it now costs Tk 0.75. But now, there seems to be no control of the government on fixing drug prices. And, pharmaceutical companies are charging whatever they want, making poor people suffer the most. In this situation, a drastic change is necessary. Retail prices of each medicine, produced in the country or imported from abroad, should be approved by the government agency so that the authorities concerned can ensure reasonable prices for drugs.

Md. Ashraf Hossain,

120, Middle Bashabo, Dhaka-1214,

mah120cb@yahoo.com