Unauthorised pharmacies, unskilled manpower create health hazard

Around 80 thousand drug license holders throughout the country including 10 thousand in the capital are running pharmacy business mostly with unskilled manpower creating several problems during dealing with customers.
Around 80 thousand drug licenses including 10 thousand in the capital for running pharmacy business have been issued to applicants who have trade licenses and certificates of pharmacy course so far. Meanwhile, around 20 thousand applications from different parts of the capital for getting drug licenses have been submitted to the authority in the last seven months.
Directorate of Drug Admi-nistration said the number of pharmacies in the country will be near about double than the official figure as people throughout the country who have minimum pharmacy job experiences are engaged in pharmacy business ignoring all terms and conditions in this regard. And thus, the number of unauthorised pharmacies is increasing daily.
As they have no required qualification and training in this regard and no license from authority to run pharmacies, they sell different kinds of medicines including spurious, date expired and sedative items. Most of the time, they sell these items at high rate among their customers, the source said.
As part of deals, some dishonest pharmacists, doctors and representatives of different pharmaceutical companies in connivance with each other push substandard medicines at high rate to the customers that create health hazard and the patients become victims of harassment, the sources said.
While talking to The Bangladesh Today, AA Selim Barami assistant director of Directorate of Drug Administration said many irregularities are taking place in pharmacy business nowadays. Absence of institutional training about pharmacy business, lack of educational qualification and knowledge about diseases and impact of medicines are the main causes behind these irregularities.
“We have only 27 inspectors to inspect these irregularities throughout the country. They have to keep watch on thousands of different types of medicines of around eight hundred pharmaceutical companies in the country daily. Despite this, we collected around Tk 45 to 50 lakh as fine from dishonest pharmacy owners in the last two years,” he said, adding that “to root out the anarchy and irregularities from this sector will be possible by us if the government extends its assistances providing manpower and logistical supports.”
About the quality of country’s pharmacy employees, he said thousand of people are engaged with the job or business but most of them are unskilled with low education. “So far as I know, pharmacy owners association has arranged a training course recently in this regards which is inadequate according to necessity,” he added.

Courtesy of The Bangladesh Today