After more than two years, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is yet to comply with a parliamentary body recommendation to revoke licenses of 62 substandard drug companies.
Among these companies, most are still manufacturing and supplying drugs, some “managed” temporary permission from the Directorate of Drug Administration (DDA), while some got stay orders from the court on the license cancellation move.
The situation forced the parliamentary standing committee on the health ministry, which has suggested revocation of the licenses, to reassess its position.
In its 32nd meeting held in January, the committee instructed its drug experts for a re-inquiry on the 62 companies and submit a fresh report in three months – which the latter is yet to produce.
However, several members of the sub-committee, wishing anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were not interested to redo the whole enquiry again, since the first one was “complete in itself” and had all the information required. They, however, questioned the sincerity of the health ministry to take action against substandard drug companies.
In June-July 2009, 24 children died of acute renal failure after taking adulterated Paracetamol syrups made by Rid Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Later, a probe body detected the presence of diethylene glycol, a chemical used in dyeing and tannery industries, in the syrups.
The Rid Pharmaceuticals incident provoked widespread concern about the reliability of drugs prepared by local companies, leading the parliamentary committee on MoHFW to run a probe of its own.
A sub-committee of drug experts, headed by member of parliament Nazmul Hasan Papon, was formed on July 23, 2009. It visited 193 pharmaceutical companies, examined their levels of performance, and divided them into A, B, C, D, E and F categories.
According to their report, those listed in A, B and C categories produced drugs in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP); those in D, E and F categories did not.
Taking cognisance of the report, the parliamentary body requested the ministry to revoke the licenses of the 62 companies found to be in non-compliance of the GMP condition.
But instead of doing that, in 2012, the ministry formed a committee to re-probe the allegations, without notifying the parliamentary committee of their move.
According to sources, so far the ministry revoked licenses of 20 companies, suspended different products of 29 companies, temporarily revoked two companies’ production and marketing rights, and allowed nine others to continue operating.
However, in its 32nd meeting earlier this year, members of the parliamentary committee questioned the formation of a ministry-run probe enquiry team without telling them anything beforehand.
In response, Humayun Kabir, former senior health secretary, said according to a 1940 drug act, they cannot “directly” cancel companies’ registrations.
Before doing that, he said, it was necessary to serve show-cause notices to the companies responsible – which they did – and after getting their answers, their committee visited them.
Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque, however, apologised to the committee, saying they should have notified them of the news of committee formation in time.
Selim Barami, one of the directors at DDA, told the Dhaka Tribune that “all questions with regard to the 62 companies were answered in the meeting.”