ICDDR,B co-operative stops producing rice saline

A co-operative business run by the ICDDR,B employees has stopped making rice-based oral saline used only in its hospitals and treatment centres amid reports of selling this life-saving saline outside using the Centre’s name.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 April 2014, 06:01 PM
Updated : 12 April 2014, 06:45 PM

The Employees' Multipurpose Co-operative Society Chairman Dr Anowar Hossain in a statement said they were in the process of obtaining registration for this saline.

The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) developed the oral saline in the late 1960s and since then it saved millions of lives from this water-borne disease.

But recent media reports of law-enforcing agencies unearthing fake oral-saline factories put the issue of its rice-based saline’s licensing in the spotlight.

There have been media reports that some staff had been engaged in selling the product outside, prompting the co-operative society take this decision, said an official of the Society.

Speaking to bdnews24.com, he also said they would soon resume manufacturing the rice-based saline since “it’s just a matter of time for us to take licence”.

He said they never thought about licence since they had not been marketing it outside.

However, ICDDR,B management has already started using oral saline available in the market and instructed its hospitals and treatment centres to stop using the Co-operative Society’s saline.

The co-operative is an independently registered entity, separately managed by ICDDR,B employees.

In a statement, the research centre said the decision of not using the unregistered saline has been taken by its management, pending the co-operative's registration with the Bangladesh Directorate-General of Drug Administration, which regulates oral saline under the Drug Act of 1982.

"We have no concerns about the quality of ORS produced by the co-operative," its Executive Director John Clemens was quoted as saying in the media statement.

He said they had contracted “an alternative supplier until this matter is resolved”.

However, ICDDR,B management has confirmed that patient care will not be interrupted during this transition.

A scientist at the Centre told bdnews24.com that they had started using SMC's oral saline from Friday.

Earlier on Mar 24, ICDDR,B warned consumers against buying its rice-based oral saline outside the centre.

A scientist says the the Co-operative’s ORS and the outside ORS were the same in quality and effectiveness.

But since rice is a staple in Bangladesh, their saline was more palatable for diarrhoeal patients, the number of which grew recently after a spell of scorching heat.

Its Dhaka hospital at Mohakhali had been receiving about 700 patients a day in the last week.