Graft watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh has revealed that knee-deep corruption is present in every sphere of the government’s drug regulatory authority.
“Corruption is somewhat institutionalised at almost every point of service delivery through collusive corrupt practices, and especially small pharmaceutical companies resort to such practices more than the rest,” a new report of the TIB says.
The Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International conducted the research on irregularities and corruption associated with marketing and regulation of medicines between March 2014 and January 2015.
“The influence of representatives of the big pharmaceutical companies strengthens the collusive nature of corruption through their inclusion in different committees,” the report says.
Every year the drug administration fails to oversight two-thirds of the drug market and in measuring the standard of nearly 70 % drugs due to the lack of required manpower, according to the report.
Shahnur Rahman, programme manager of research and policy wing of the TIB, along with Nazmul Huda Mina, an assistant manager, presented the report at a programme in Dhanmondi of the capital.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the country’s drug regulatory authority.
This DGDA supervises and implements all existing drug regulations in the country and regulates all activities related to import, procurement of raw and packing materials, production and import of finished drugs, export, sales and pricing of all kinds of medicines.
According to the report, alleged amount of illegal payment in different activities at the DGDA are Tk5-10 lakh for registration of project/company, Tk50,000-1,00,000 for licence renewal, Tk10-15 lakh for project transfer/shifting, Tk4,000-5,000 for approval of recipe, Tk1-1.5 lakh for registration of drugs, Tk7,000-9,000 for approval of (draft and final) foil, insert, label and pack, Tk2,000-2,500 for approval of block list, Tk4,000-5,000 for approval of literature, Tk5,000-6,000 (per product) for price determination, Tk20,000-30,000 for export licence and GMP certificate, Tk6,000-7,000 for sample testing and quality control (per sample), Tk10,000-15,000 for drug licence and Tk500-1,000 for renewal of drug licence.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the TIB, said the drug administration had been suffering from lack of allocation, adequate manpower and moral values.
“Accountability, as we expected, is not seen here. We see immense political influence on the corruption line,” he said while commenting on the report.
He also said the pharmaceuticals companies were reluctant to maintain standard of products manufactured for the local market, but opposite in case of the drugs for export. “There is a big difference in using raw materials [for the two markets].”
As a result, public health is dented while corruption being institutionalised, he added.
Sultana Kamal, chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the TIB, said greed for making undue profit in every business was on the rise. “The main reason behind the scenario is absence of good governance,” said Sultana, also a former adviser to a caretaker government.
