BANGLADESH Directorate General of Drug Administration imposed a temporary ban on Sunday on the import, production and sale of heartburn drug Ranitidine amid a global concern over the presence of a probable carcinogen in the products. Earlier, Canada and France have announced recalls of Ranitidine products while the US and the European Union are investigating, it’s also reported. It is learnt that Ranitidine was produced by almost every pharmaceutical company in the country which has annual sales of Tk 250 crore. Though it is popular for reducing the production of stomach acid in patients, it may create different side effects such as heartburn and stomach ulcers. The US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency both published their decisions on September 13 to review the presence of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in medicines containing the drug Ranitidine.
We do thank the Drug Administration for taking timely decision about the Ranitidine considering the health risk factor of people. But what’s most miserable is that a large number of people have to take adulterated or fake medicines whose side effect is more and more dangerous than the Ranitidine. Most of the country’s pharmacies frequently sell fake and time-expired medicines only to make a hefty profit. One example is enough to explain the severity of condition. On June 20, twenty-two pharmacy owners were fined a total of Tk 31.3 lakh for selling date-expired, fake and contraband medicine in Dhaka. A mobile court of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection (DNCRP) conducted the drive in the city’s Green Road area, during which it fined 17 pharmacies. Besides, Dhaka Divisional and District officials conducted a drive in the city’s Vatara, Segunbagicha and Badda areas on the same day and fined Tk 75,000 to the owners of three other pharmacies for same reason.
It was the story of only one day. But reality is that country’s pharmacies are flooded with counterfeit and date-expired medicines. Meanwhile, RAB, DB and Drug Administration have seized a huge quantity of fake medicines from different pharmacies across the city almost every month. Not only that a couple of fake medicine factories have also busted by the law enforcement agencies. But selling of fake medicines not yet stopped.
