Maintain quality of medicine
The other day, I was watching a TV report on quality drugs and their and prices in our country. It has been revealed that bad quality drugs are being produced and high prices are being charged for them. In some cases, the prices of some drugs are much higher than its cost of production. When asked by the TV reporter, one of the top bosses of the drug administration could not give a fair answer as to why licenses are being given to such drug companies that produce inferior quality drugs.
As far as my knowledge goes, not only in Bangladesh but even in the advanced countries the pharmaceutical companies are producing drugs for making money. For instance, adverse or side effects of a drug are not often disclosed or not properly provided along with drug for its users. Even the physician hardly feels the need to inform a patient about the possible side effects of a drug. Even if a patient or his attendant after reading the enclosed literature in the medicine's packet asks about the side effects or any other contra-indication relevant her/his individual case, the doctor would often answer: "If you read all that is written in the literature, you need not take this medicine."
Recently while talking with Newsmax Financial Publisher Aaron DeHoog at a private dinner in Florida, Robert Wiedemer, a famed economist and the author of New York Times' best-selling book said: “You see, the medicine will become the poison..."
It is indeed true. We must take proper measures to ensure that medicines are really true to what they promise to prevent or cure and their prices are within the reach of common people.
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