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Enough stock of tetracycline in country

Profiteering pushes prices high

By Shaner Khan
There is a sufficient stock of the plague fighting antl-bi-otic Tetracycline but some unscrupulous drug dealers have raised its price, creating an artificial crisis.
In the last few days the sale of different brands of Tetracycline has increased manifold while the drug manufacturers too. have increased production. Until Ihe outbreak of the plague in India last week, the sale of Tetracycline in Bangladesh had l>een very dull compared with other antibiotics. pharmaceutical sources said.
There is hardly any possibility of onr running short of Tetracycline for the next two months because we have a good stock of its raw materials. ' Dr Muminul Haq. secretary general of the Bangladesh Aushad Shifpa Samity which? represents the country's leading drug manufacturers told The Daily Star last night.
At the city's Babubazar drug wholesale market near Milford Hospital, which virtually controls the country's drug market. a Tk 1.30 tetracycline capsule manufactured by the multinational Pfizer was sold at a minimum price of Tk 1.50 and a maximum of Tk 2.
Similarly, fifty other brands of Tetracycline produced by
various companies were sold at a price 30 to 50 per cent higher than the price fixed by the Drug Administration
This price was not enhanced by the drug compa nfes." said the director of the Drug Administration. Prof Dr Chowdhury Mahmud Hasan. "I have personally visited some drug stores where Tetracycline Is being sold at higher prices. I think some unsc rupulous traders are Involved."
He informed The Daily Star last plght that the Drug Administration would approve ihe import of the raw materials for the drug whenever Ihe pharmaceutical companies re-qulred -
Usually 11 takes about 15 days for the companies to gel approval for the import of the raw materials, mostly from India and China.
Meanwhile, at a press conference in the city yesterday, the Additional Director General af the Department of Health. Dr Shamsuddln Siddiqui, said the country s hospitals had at least 50 lakh capsules of tetracycline.
Dr Siddiqui also told the press that he had the Information that a capsule even sold at Tk 25 at some places where as the normal price was Tk 2.
According to Muminul Huq of the Aushad Shilpa Samity.
Ihe executive committee of the Association held a meeting on Thursday In which the mem ber factories were asked to Increase the production of tetracycline as the nlry might need those to case of a spread of the dreaded epidemic.
"Now that trie approval for fmporitne : . materials would take only a lew hours the drug companies which do not have any Tetrai vcline stock, would be able to irr-port. produce and distribute the drug In the market within 15 days." he pointed out.
He irHrmed The Dally Star that son: 50 to 60 companies produced the antibiotic and nobody could enhance Its price unless 11 got approval from the Drug Administration," If any company Ignores this rule and enhances the price of the drug, we will cancel that company s membership." Dr Huq added.
The demand for the drug having shot up dramatically, some companies might nut follow strict quality controls lo make a few fast bucks, one authoritative source admitted.
According to Ihe district correspondents of ri:»: Daily Star from the bordci ng areas, Tetracycline is now being smuggled to India where the plague has already claimed many lives.