Starting in 2011, it took the ruling Awami League-led 14-party alliance government nearly two years to come up with a proposed drug policy.
Although the policy was an important part of its election manifesto in 2008, the government has not yet finalised the policy that, if implemented, could significantly curtail the selling and distribution of fake and low quality drugs.
Sources said the proposed “Drug Policy 2013,” which was called the pharmaceuticals policy in the manifesto, has reportedly been lying idle for more than six months in one of the cabinets of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
With just a few months left of the current government’s tenure, experts have expressed serious doubts about the policy’s fate.
The 2008 election manifesto of the Awami League read: “An appropriate pharmaceutical policy to bring self-sufficiency in the production of medicines of an international standard and to promote their export will be formulated. Concurrently, effective measures will be taken for education in traditional medicine and for the improvement of its quality.”
In 2011, a 14-member committee, led by the director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), was formed with an aim to come up with a time-befitting, pro-welfare, and acceptable drug policy.
The committee was also tasked with reviewing the National Drug Policy 1982 and the National Drug Policy of 2005, and setting out recommendations for the latest one.
The commission benefitted from representatives who were lawmakers, pharmacists, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, university professors.
Sources in the DGDA said although the committee had finalised and submitted its recommendations to the ministry in September 2012, bureaucratic tangles and inactiveness of the officials concerned kept the policy from seeing the light of day.
Dhaka Tribune has learnt that the proposed policy includes a list of all the essential drugs by bringing all drug manufacturers – allopathic, homeopathic, ayurvedic, unani and kaviraji – under one umbrella policy.
Experts have scrutinised a huge number of drugs and declared many of them as not essential.
The proposed policy also recommends not allowing companies to manufacture all kinds of drugs in order to prevent the illegal production of fake, adulterated and low quality drugs.
There are also recommendations for including representatives from the consumers and prescribers in the Drug Pricing Committee of DGDA.
Seeking anonymity, some of the members of the committee involved in updating the drug policy, said the proposal that they had come up with was acceptable to all and would be instrumental in stopping the manufacturing and selling of fake, adulterated and low quality drugs.
They said a vested interest had been continuously putting pressure on the government and even heavily bribing the officials concerned to make sure that the policy remained in the dark.
Health Secretary MM Niazuddin Ahmed, however, has termed the allegations as propaganda.
He said the health ministry is currently taking the opinions of the other ministries and people from various walks of life regarding the policy and it would be announced very soon.
Professor of Pharmacy of Dhaka University (DU) and Pro-Vice Chancellor of East West University Dr Muniruddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that although the 2005 drug policy was pro-industry, it did not take into account the interests of the consumers and those of the common people.
Prof Muniruddin said the committee that promulgated the policy was comprised mostly of owners of drug manufacturing plants. It was in line with their recommendations that the 2005 policy dissolved the price controlling practice.
He also said the 2005 policy brought back to the market some of the unnecessary, harmful and low quality drugs that the 1982 policy disapproved. This had allowed many unscrupulous businesspeople to do business again.
When contacted, Selim Barami, member secretary of the drug policy updating policy, and DU Professor AHM Faruq, convenor of a sub-committee, however, refused to say anything in detail about the policy that they had proposed.
The country’s pharmaceuticals industry has expanded in leaps and bounds over the last three decades.
Leading drug manufacturer Square Pharmaceuticals, who earned around Tk70m a year in 1981, now earns Tk13.15bn per year. Many other manufacturers and exporters, including Opsonin, Beximco, Incepta, SKF, Renata, Acme, ACI and Aristo, have experienced similar growth in recent decades.
Sources in the DGDA said an executive order of the health ministry in 1994 gave the manufacturers the right to fix the prices of all drugs except for 117 essential items. There are allegations that the pharmaceutical companies increase the prices of drugs mostly on their whims.
The entrepreneurs, however, have told the media many times in the past that the allegations were not true, that the price of drugs in Bangladesh was a lot lower compared with the world standards and that they only increased price whenever necessary.
