Four pharmacies, one superstore fined for Odomos rip-off amid dengue outbreak

The government has fined four pharmacies and one superstore in Dhaka Tk 100,000 each for ripping customers off with the price of Odomos, a mosquito repellent cream, making the most of the dengue outbreak.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 August 2019, 08:11 PM
Updated : 4 August 2019, 08:22 PM

The retailers fined in drives on Sunday are Swiss Pharma, Desh Pharma, and Life Care Pharma at Kalabagan, and Unimart and Wellbeing Pharmacy at Gulshan.

They were charging the customers between Tk 300 and Tk 548 for the cream, which was being sold at Tk 125 until the ongoing bout of mosquito-borne viral fever started, according to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection.

It also summoned their officials on Monday, the directorate said.

Monjur Mohammad Shahriar, a deputy directorate at the directorate, said in a Facebook post that officials of the directorate conducted operations on the Kalabagan retailers posing as customers to find out the truth.

In Gulshan, the two retailers were also found stockpiling the product illegally, he said.

Accounts kept in the pharmacy and the superstore showed they were selling Odomos at Tk 265 two days ago, but raised the price to Tk 548 on Sunday, according to Monjur.

The directorate has shut down Swiss Pharma and Unimart temporarily.

An official at Unimart customer care department declined commenting on the drive. Comments from the others were not available as well.