Govt to continue drive to stop supply of counterfeit medicines: Health Minister

Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Husain today (13 July) said the government will continue its nationwide drives to completely stop the supply of counterfeit, adulterated and substandard medicines and ensure strict legal action against those involved in such crimes.

"The government's efforts will continue to eliminate the production and supply of fake and substandard medicines and to bring the offenders under the purview of the law," he told parliament in reply to a written question from opposition lawmaker Md. Nurul Islam (Chapainawabganj-3) of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

The minister said the government has attached the highest priority to preventing the production, import, storage, distribution and sale of counterfeit, adulterated and substandard medicines across the country.

He said the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) has been conducting regular field inspections nationwide, operating mobile courts, collecting medicine samples for laboratory testing, carrying out intelligence-based drives and conducting special operations with the assistance of law enforcement agencies.

Sakhawat Husain said legal action is being taken against individuals and establishments involved in the manufacture, stockpiling, supply or sale of counterfeit and substandard medicines. "Such measures include imposing fines through mobile courts, suspending or cancelling licences, and seizing and destroying illegal medicines in accordance with the existing laws," he said.

The minister also said the government has taken plans to further strengthen the DGDA's field-level monitoring by increasing manpower, expanding inspection activities, introducing risk-based surveillance, enhancing the capacity of modern testing laboratories, strengthening information technology-based monitoring systems and continuing coordinated enforcement drives involving relevant stakeholders and law enforcement agencies.