Editorial
Drive against spurious medicines
Adhocism won't do
MITFORD, the hub of wholesale medicine marketing in the capital, shuttering down in reaction to a comprehensive mobile court drive on Saturday, unavailability of medicines is having a telling effect on treatment of patients. After allowing a free hand to the drug markets—thanks to lack of regular monitoring and enforcement of standards by the agencies concerned—it is only natural that a big raid would dredge up sizable malcontent.
Thus we see a seizure of counterfeit, contraband or date-expired drugs worth Tk 5 crore, 94 people arrested of whom 72 have been released and realisation of fines to the tune of Tk 1.20 crore. Furthermore, it brings to light doing business without licenses from authorised bodies.
What a sudden wakeup disaster has it been from a Rip Van Winkle sleep on the part of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI)! This seasonal and ad-hoc operation at long intervals can at best have a cosmetic effect. Regular monitoring is of the essence in keeping a tab on criminality in the drug trade.
This is not to make light of the offences playing around with the lives of human beings by providing from the shelves medicines of substandard, even injurious kinds. The reaction is culpable too in that they have blocked traffic and caused a ruckus bringing public disorder in tow. This is reprehensible.
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