TIB sees drug monitor-producer nexus

Transparency International Bangladesh says a nexus between drug producers and the regulator has “institutionalised” corruption, putting people at risk with low-quality drugs.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 Jan 2015, 12:00 PM
Updated : 15 Jan 2015, 01:07 PM

The anti-graft body in a “qualitative” research has found that officials of the Directorate General of Drug Administration extract bribes for different services that include the testing of drug samples and the issuing and renewal of licenses.

Releasing the report on Thursday, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the drug administration authorities had acknowledged illegal monetary transactions.

The Director General of the Directorate General of Drug Administration, however, could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.

But the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) said the report was not worth a comment.
“They (TIB) make sweeping comments without any deep analysis of the situation. So better not to comment on their report,” Abdul Muktadir told bdnews24.com.
TIB produced the report after interviewing a group of drug industry stakeholders and regulators.
The executive director said they had also talked to 10 representatives from drug companies.
He said the discussions revealed that the big companies that export drugs use low quality raw materials for the local market.
“They have two factories – one for manufacturing export products and another for the local market,” he said.
He said their presence in pricing committees helped companies control prices, and recommended their removal from all committees including those of quality control, pricing, and project evaluation.
TIB said some companies even ignored the basic norms of procedure drug manufacture.
But they succeed in influencing drug officials when they are out on inspection. The anti-graft body described the arrangement as “mutual corruption”.
TIB suggested the strengthening of the drug administration with “manpower, logistics, infrastructure, and training”.
They cited instances of corruption and said officials took bribes between Tk 0.5 million and Tk 1 million for giving licence and at least Tk 50,000 for renewals.
The report identified a lack of strong laws and policies and shoddy application of existing laws as factors behind the corruption.
But the impact is “public health risks, institutionalisation of irregularities and corruption, and limiting the progresses of exports”.
The Bangladesh drug administration oversees all forms of drugs such as allopathic, unani, ayurvedic, homeopathic and herbal.
But the TIB studied only corruption related to allopathic drugs which have a big market.
This burgeoning industry meets almost the entire national demand with more than 1,200 generic and 27,000 brand registered items produced in the country.
TIB Chairman Sultana Kalam said drug companies “resorted to corruption to maximise their profit”.