Drug safety ignored as inertia grips ADRAC

The committee, formed a year ago to monitor drug safety and take measures in this connection is yet to get the much-needed spur.
The Adverse Drug Reaction Advisory Committee (ADRAC) was formed by the government to monitor public health and drug safety and identify adversities that may cause death of any patient.
But one year has elapsed since then, still it could not be that much active in discharging its duty.
Md. Nasser Shahrear Zahedee, president of Bangladesh Pharmaceuticals Society (BPS), said the ADRAC was formed not only to identify drug reaction, ban unsafe drugs and stop production of drugs that could cause health risks. It was also tasked with identifying active pharmaceutical ingredients' sources, their quality and efficacy.
He also said despite the proposal for banning some drugs by the committee, those were still available in the market.
ADRAC meetings were not being held regularly, though the committee needed to meet frequently to resolve many problems hindering safe drug use.
The BPS president said: "We hope the committee will work independently and there will be no pressure from manufacturers and political parties."
Dr Munir Uddin Ahmed, professor of Pharmaceuticals Department at Dhaka University, said: "Though I am a member of the advisory committee, I have nothing to do there except attending the meeting as decisions are not being implemented and many important issues are being avoided."
Every year thousands of people die across the world due to unsafe drug use. In many developed and developing countries
there are active committees to identify drug reaction and warn physicians not to prescribe such drugs and the companies not to manufacture them.
But in Bangladesh there is no statistics on deaths caused by drug reaction.
However, though late, an ADRAC advisory committee member said requesting anonymity, the committee was formed by the government to identify and assess the adversities of drugs.
But he lamented that a year already had elapsed since the inception, but the committee was still not getting the required spur.
The ADRAC member said the committee was formed to work independently without interference from any politicians or influential manufacturers. In the event of its failure to do it, it would turn into a paper-based committee.
For instance, he said: "ADRAC at a meeting recently banned six drugs for their reaction. But despite the ban, a product is still being manufactured by a leading company and it is available in the market."
When contacted, MM Neazuddin, secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: "At this moment I do have no idea about ADRAC meetings."
Akter Hossain, assistant director of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), said: "The frequency of ADRAC meetings is not that much right now, but we are trying to infuse dynamism into the newly- formed committee."
The DGDA assistant director said expert professionals from different institutions had been included in the new ADRAC committee.
Mr. Hossain said senior physicians from different hospitals, officials from DGDA and professionals from universities and other institutions were made members of the advisory committee.