Rules drafted to check sale of fake drugs

FE Team | Published: October 06, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Jasim Khan The government is going to take a number of measures to regulate sale, distribution and marketing of counterfeit drugs and also ensure rational and safe use of other licensed medicines. As stated in the draft Drug Rules 2013, the government will introduce hospital pharmacies and community pharmacies across the country. Graduate pharmacists will be posted there. They will officially be responsible for unsafe use of any counterfeit, fake or low quality drugs. Apart from that, the government will also form separate committees on 'pharmacy and therapeutics' at hospitals to ensure safe use of drugs. A quasi-judicial bench under the Directorate of Health will also be there to take speedy action against those who will be found guilty of selling, distributing and marketing counterfeit drugs. A high official of the health ministry said the draft rules had been finalised by the committee concerned and the rules were already posted on the ministry website soliciting opinions from stakeholders and the general people. "On review of the suggestions and recommendations, the drug rules will be finalised and sent to the cabinet for its nod," he said. In the draft drug rules it has been proposed that sale of any kind of drugs other than the over-the-counter (OTC) medicines without prescription must be stopped. A list of OTC drugs has already been finalised in this connection. "Under the draft drug rules, introduction of special colour for OTC drug packets has also been proposed so that everyone can easily identify them," a member of the drug rules committee said. According to the draft drug rules, companies will be requested to give the generic names of their drugs so that doctors and pharmacists can easily prescribe them. When the country's pharmaceutical industry exports drugs to as many as 87 countries across the world, investigation has revealed that spurious drugs worth US $ 450 million are posing a serious health risk. The Public Health and Drug Testing Laboratory (PHDTL) tested over 2,500 drug samples last year. It found that 300 drugs were either counterfeit or of very poor quality. They included many popular antibiotics and lifesaving drugs. According to sources, Bangladesh has over 100,000 non-registered drug stores selling counterfeit drugs without any restriction. The draft rules proposed cancellation of approval of several hundred drugs.