Protest Against Drive<\/em>
\nMitford medicine shops kept shut<\/strong>
\nTraders of the country\u2019s largest wholesale medicine market in the capital\u2019s Mitford yesterday kept their shops shut, protesting Saturday\u2019s drive against the sale of illegal and unauthorised medicine. A mobile court jointly raided the market with the help of Rapid Action Battalion-10, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), and seized medicine worth Tk 5 crore.
\nA total of 94 people were arrested in this connection, and more than Tk 1.28 crore was realised in fines.
\nThe traders alleged that the Rab personnel had harassed them, arrested their fellow traders, and seized their goods indiscriminately. They urged the Bangladesh Chemists and Druggists Samity (BCDS) to come up with measures to free the arrested traders.
\nOut of 94 arrestees, 22 are still serving different terms in jail, whereas the remaining 72 were freed after realising fines from them.
\nTo realise their demands, the traders blocked the road in front of the BCDS Bhaban at Mitford from 9:00am to 4:00pm, causing untold sufferings to customers and outdoor patients of Mitford Hospital. The relatives of the patients were seen travelling to other parts of the country to collect medicine for their dear ones.
\nThe traders claimed that the mobile court had considered the medicine sold at cheaper rate to be of substandard quality.
\n\u201cIt is the responsibility of the DGDA to check the quality of the medicine, and fix the price. They should fine the companies who produce these drugs, not us, the sellers,\u201d one of the traders said.
\nRegarding import-banned items, traders questioned how it was possible for such items to have entered the country through following import procedures if they were banned.
\n\u201cDoctors prescribe many of these items, and therefore, we have to keep those in the shops,\u201d said Borhanuddin Ahmed, who was fined Tk 1 lakh for selling unauthorised foreign ointments and surgical items.
\nAnother trader, who was fined Tk1 lakh, wishing anonymity, said he had tablets of Aventis Company in his shop. He questioned: \u201cIs it my fault that the company did not put the Drug Administration Registration (DAR) number on it?\u201d
\nRefuting the allegation of wholesale arrest, Sharif Md Forhad Hossain, magistrate of Rab-10, said, \u201cHad the allegation of wholesale arrests been true, there could have been 500 detainees as we checked 500 shops and godowns. Out of these 500, we found problems only in 80 shops.\u201d
\nMany of the shops did not have drug licences and pharmacists as per rule, he said.
\nIn the absence of pharmacists, the traders themselves often cannot differentiate between the medicine of foreign original brands and approved drug companies from the counterfeit ones made in China, he added.
\nForhad said they had found hundred percent doctor\u2019s sample medicines at eight to nine shops.
\nMany previously registered local companies, which have been banned by the government, still use their previous DAR number. \u201cIt is often impossible for an uninformed person to notice this discrepancy,\u201d he explained.
\nA source in the DGDA explained that a wholesale drug shop does not require a pharmacist, but a retailer does. \u201cMost of the shops in the Mitford area have retail licences. But they have been carrying out wholesale business. Most of these shops do not have pharmacists.\u201d
\nThe source also rejected the version of BCDS Deputy Secretary ASM Monir Hossain, who claimed that expired medicine was not being sold at any shops in Mitford. \u201cWe found some expired medicines. But I cannot give the exact number right away,\u201d he said.
\nThe BCDS is scheduled to hold a meeting today around 11:00am to decide whether medicine traders across the country will keep their shops closed till the detained traders are released.
\nMonir Hossain also said around 2,000 medicine shops in 43 markets at Mitford were kept shut in protest of Saturday\u2019s drive.<\/p>\n

-With The Daily Star<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protest Against Drive Mitford medicine shops kept shut Traders of the country\u2019s largest wholesale medicine market in the capital\u2019s Mitford yesterday kept their shops shut, protesting Saturday\u2019s drive against the sale of illegal and unauthorised medicine. A mobile court jointly raided the market with the help of Rapid Action Battalion-10, the Directorate General of Drug … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n