HC asks govt to prevent arbitrary drug pricing
FE REPORT | Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Latest price spirals of lifesaving medicines invoke a High Court direction for government agencies to take effective measures to prevent "arbitrary and illegal" pricing of drugs by pharmaceutical companies.
Monday's multiple court orders are directed towards the Health Secretary and the Director-General of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).
The court also asked the government bodies to take appropriate steps against the pharmaceutical companies which violated the law in the pricing of drugs and report to the HC within 30 days.
The High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah passed the orders after hearing a writ petition filed in the wake of continued rise in medicine prices that are deemed beyond the reach of commoners.
In its comprehensive direction on the vital sector the High Court also asked the government bodies to restrain pharmaceutical companies from importing raw materials and the manufacturing and selling of foreign drugs without prior approval.
Also, the HC bench issued a rule upon the bodies concerned of the government to explain as to why "the inaction of government bodies concerned in not fixing the price of all drugs under Section 30 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 2023 should not be declared illegal".
The High Court also wants to know why the respondents should not be directed to fix the price of drugs after formulation of rules under Section 76 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), represented by Alamgir Kabir, Member-Secretary of the National Committee for Consumer Complaints Handling, filed the petition Sunday.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the writ petitioner while Deputy Attorney-General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.
According to the petition, the government is supposed to fix the price of drugs by notification in the official gazette, but since the year 2000, no such gazette notification "has ever been published by the government".
The Drugs Act 1940 and the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982 contained the similar provisions which had not been followed "intentionally and with malafide intention to facilitate the private pharmaceutical companies to make unreasonable and predatory profit", the petition reads.