Seminar held on Good Manufacturing Practices for Drugs

The Bangladesh Health & FW Minister, Professor Dr AFM Ruhal Haque warned against pilferage of medicine from hospitals and health complexes, and also against manufacturing and sales of adulterated drugs. Addressing a seminar at the CIRDAP auditorium on November 3 2009, organized by the Drug Administration, with the assistance from WHO Bangladesh, he said, “we can be proud of our pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. After fulfilling 97% of the local demand for medicines we are exporting to 72 countries, including some EU countries. This is good news for our economy. Some of our local companies are producing High Tech drugs, such as those prescribed for Cancer and insulin therapy. We will also be able to produce export-quality vaccines in the coming years”.  

Emphasizing on the importance of  having a team of skilled and trained staff in Drug Administration for ensuring quality, safety, efficacy and usefulness of medicines,  Prof. Ruhal Haque said, “we have shortage of manpower in our Drug Regulatory Body and in our Drug Testing Laboratory. The Government was eager to  raise the status of Directorate of Drug Administration to that of Directorate General of Drug Administration. The Government has plans to establish one more Drug Testing Laboratory very soon. The establishment of an API Industrial Park is also in progress.”

This was a seminar to share on “lessons Learnt from UNICEF Inspection on Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP)”. A UNICEF expert team conducted an audit on 17 units of manufacturing plants of its enlisted and potential supplier companies in the country. Most of the leading pharmaceutical companies had failed  to maintain the cGMP set by the WHO, said the audit report.. The seminar was addressed by the State Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Mozibur Rahman as Special Guest. Health Secretary Shaikh Altaf Ali and the WHO Acting Country Representative Dr Khaled Hassan also spoke in the seminar, presided over by Mr Ismail Hossain, Director, Drug Administration.

The State Minister for Health, Mozibur Rahman, urged leading manufacturers to evolve a combined strategy to develop a world-class central drug testing laboratory to maintain quality of the products.

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