More than two weeks after Rid Pharmaceutical was sealed off one more children died of renal failure in Rangpur yesterday after consumption of its toxic paracetamol syrup raising the death toll to 26.

Our Rangpur correspondent reports: The victim Rani died at home yesterday at around 8:00am, nine days after her renal failure.

Ten-month-old Rani, daughter of Shafiqul Islam of Syedpur under Pirgachha upazila, had been fighting for life since July 26 after she took paracetamol syrup as per the prescription of a village doctor Syedur Rahman.

Her parents had to take her home on August 4 from Rangpur Medical College Hospital since they could not afford to take her to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical

University in Dhaka, which the doctors suggested.

Locals said village doctor Syedur Rahman had been on the run for three days and the pharmacy at Syedpur Bazar that sold the paracetamol syrup of Rid to Rani's parents on July 26 had remained closed after the death of the kid.

Even though the product was supposed to be withdrawn from all pharmacies across the country as per the government directive, authorities concerned at district level are yet to take any initiative in this regard.

When asked Civil Surgeon of Rangpur Dr Reazul Islam said he directed drug superintendent of Rangpur to withdraw Rid s paracetamol syrup from all pharmacies as per the governmentdirection.

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He said, “A team led by the drug superintendent launched a drive in the markets in search of Rid's paracetamol but failed to get any."

Meanwhile, an official probe on July 29 found the presence of toxic compound in Rid s syrup but the Drug Administration is allegedly buying time in prosecuting the company.

As many as 25 children died of renal failure in July in two hospitals in Dhaka after taking toxic syrup of Rid, a Brahmanbaria drug company, prompting the government to seal off the company on July 22.

Drug authorities said as it didn't have any lawyer of its own it had slowed down the pr. jess of filing any case against Rid Pharmaceutical.

Director of the Drug Administration (DA) Brig Gen . Ismail Hossain Thursday said, 'By this afternoon we will be able to come to a decision when and how the case will be filed." He hoped they would be able to file a case within next three days.

He, however, told The Daily Star on August 2 that DA would file a case against the drug company the following day.

“It is an urgent need to appoint lawyers to this drug regulatory body," said the director.

The authorities said that some 45 cases have been filed with the Drug Court over the last two years while 221 cases with the Magistrate Court. But no cases have been disposed of till date.

Deputy Director of the administration A A Salim Barami told The Daily Star that

the DA is supposed to monitor around 246 licensed allopathic drug companies besides hundreds of unany, ayurvedic and homeopathic ones.

It is also supposed to collect samples from the market, send the samples for testing and even provide registration to the new companies, he added.

"We control the total drug market that deals with medicines worth about Tk 5,000 crore with only 24 people. How can we expect having a perma-nent lawyer?" questioned Barami.

The authorities also informed that a proposal had been sent to the health ministry to recruit 750 more people to run the administration properly and to protect the drug market of the country.

However, the proposal is now awaiting approval of the establishment ministry.

The last recruitment took place in 1996 and every year a total of 12 employees go on retirement, which makes the administration more vulnerable that ultimately affects the drug market and the consumers.

Soon after submitting the report of the investigation committee health minister Prof A F M Ruhal Haque told the reporters that the government would take legal action against the company immediately, which is yet to come into effect.

Currently drug-related offences are tried under the Drug Act 1940 and 1982 Drug Control Ordinance that cover issues like fake licence, adulteration. and spurious, unregistered and lowqualitydrugs.