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STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING

Rid Pharmaceuticals and Al Qaeda

Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
Readers would certainly be surprised at the heading of this article. It is difficult to draw any kind of analogy between a medicine producing
company and one of the most dreaded terror organisations. But please bear with me for a while and things will become clear.
At a time when the plight of the Rohingyas have been hogging the media headlines, the news of the Rid Pharmaceutical Company was the lead in every major newspaper of the country on Tuesday. And why not? It carried the story of the five accused in the long drawn out court case of a pharmaceutical company indicted for producing toxic paracetamol syrup, going free. Ingestion of the syrup had resulted in the death due to kidney failure of 28 children between June and August 2009. And 20 of those happened to have been admitted in the Shishu Hospital in June-July, which prompted Prof. Hanif of the same hospital to have the medicine tested at the lab.
In the noteworthy observation of the learned judge the prosecution had utterly failed to prove the charge brought against the accused. A judge has to go by the evidence produced before him. Judgment is not the outcome of what the heart and the mind know may be true but depends solely on the production of incontrovertible evidence by the prosecution to prove the case. It was not the merit of the case that deprived the parents and relatives of the dead children of justice, but the merit of the prosecution that failed the legal process and the victims.
The details of the case, the investigation in particular, will shame anyone claiming to be living in a civilised society ordered by a rule of law that seeks to deliver justice to the victims. But this is not the first case dealing with the production of toxic
drugs. The first few cases of drug adulteration came to light in 1992 and the verdict was delivered in 2014. Apparently, those entrusted to deal with the matter then couldn't care less and did everything to drag the matter. And Rid Pharmaceutical's evil ways became public knowledge only when 20 children died in the same hospital in the space of two months in 2009.
One had not seen a more persistent and dubious role of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) to ensure that the case failed in every respect. As in the case of the previous five companies which had resorted to the same immoral practice of mixing deadly chemicals in medicines, the role of the drug administration to ensure that the accused got let off is very clear except to the utter blind.
But what do all these have to do with a terror group? Everything. Terrorists indulge in wanton killing of innocents, and in most cases children also become victims. And they do it with an aim, a political aim to be exact. In this case the management and the chemists of the said company knew fully well that suspensions are generally administered
to children and to the very old and infirm. And knowing that fully well they did not hesitate to mix deadly chemicals in the paracetamol syrup. Are the owners and management of Rid Pharmaceuticals any better than the terrorists? And such scum of the earth did it for money. To them children's lives did not matter and one can be sure that they will go about their wicked trade in future also unless they are put away permanently to rid the society of the dangers that these people pose.
As for the so called Directorate General of Drug Administration theirs is the case of the gamekeeper turning poacher. They are supposed to keep the public safe, but what an effort to ensure our 'safety' health wise! The government cannot allow this state of affairs to continue to prevail in the drug administration. The DGDA is patently complicit in the commission of 28 murders of young children; not to take that into cognisance will send the signal to the likes of Rid Pharmaceuticals to
continue to indulge in the same practice.
Rid is not the only of its kind in the country. There are a number of drug manufacturers in Bangladesh that produce substandard drugs. Effects of low quality drugs with poor efficacy may not be apparent or immediate, but the long term consequences can be disastrous. According to one newspaper, several thousand children have died after taking toxic paracetamol in the last 27 years. And don't tell me that the DGDA is not aware of that.
The evil nexus between these drug manufacturers and DGDA must be snapped for good. But first of all examples must be made of those in the drug administration who were instrumental in seeing that the five accused go scot-free by deliberately inducing the lacunae during the investigation. Rid the country of Rid and the likes.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Dally Star.