Legal complexities delay Drug Policy review

Shamsul Huda | Published: November 04, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 04, 2013 11:56:44

A government move to review the country's drug policy hangs in the balance due to some legal complexities, sources said.
The ministry of health and family welfare is unable to proceed with the formulation of a revised drug policy following a stay order issued by the High Court (HC) in September last, they mentioned.
In its order, the HC had stayed all the drug policy review activities saying the review committee did not follow the gazette notification accordingly, sources said.
As per the notification, the Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society (BPS) were supposed to be represented in the review committee but the government did not include them.
Due to such absence, the BPS filed a writ petition in the High Court saying that in violation of the notification, the review committee did not include members from the society.
Md. Nasser Shahrear Zahedee, President of the BPS, said, "We filed a writ petition to the HC as the government did not include our members in the review committee."
He said, "We definitely want a drug policy that would help grow the sector and increase exports. But we do not know the reason why the government ignored our presence."
He said the writ was filed in early September following which the HC gave six weeks' time to the government to settle the issue. But till today there is still no initiative from the government.
The HC rule said, in all the drug policy review meetings members from the BPS should be present. The HC also asked why all the previous meetings without the BPS members should not be declared illegal. Until settlement of the issue, all the review activities were stayed.
Md Salim Barami, Director of the Directorate General of the Drug Administration (DGDA) said, "We are really frustrated by the deadlock over reviewing the drug policy as there is HC rule."
He said, "We cannot speak against the HC rule but we feel sorry for the problem that occurred at the final stage of the policy review."
The BPS President said as the government did not respond within the six-week deadline which has already been passed, the society is preparing to go for further action.

Md. Neazuddin, Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the FE, "We did not expect such a writ petition to be filed by the BPS."
He said due to the HC order, all the activities of the drug policy review have been halted now.
The Health Secretary said, "We have already talked to the Attorney General and we are trying to have the HC stay order vacated and sit with the BPS members."
The contents of the revised drug policy were supposed to help the existing pharmaceutical industry to grow and support the exporters to earn more foreign currencies.
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