Fingers pointed at drug admin
The statement Dr Abul Khair Chowdhury of Directorate of Drug Administration (DDA) gave in court on Wednesday is a glaring example of the authorities' neglect and an existing nexus between dishonest officials and drug adulterators.
Dr Hanif, who acted as a whistleblower in early 1990s about availability of toxic paracetamol syrup in market, Public Prosecutor of the Drug Court Mahmud Hossain Jahangir, and the family of a victim made this observation yesterday.
Dr Hanif argued the drug administration's mysterious failure to hold trial of the cases even in 16 years made the way for another spell of paracetamol syrup adulteration by Rid Pharma Ltd in 2009 that killed 28 children.
"Abul Khair must have some personal interests in this matter. Otherwise there is no scope of forgetting such an important case in which government test confirmed adulteration of paracetamol syrup by at least five companies," said Dr Hanif, also a professor at Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
During cross-examination in connection with a case filed against Adflame Pharmaceutical, DDA Assistant Director Khair said he could not remember from where he collected the sample of paracetamol syrup that was tested positive for containing lethal chemical diethylene glycol.
At least 76 children died allegedly after intake of Flammodol, name of the paracetamol syrup of Adflame, till 1991.
Dr Hanif said the DDA must have a copy of all documents related to collection of samples and the test conducted by the government's own drug testing laboratory under direct supervision of an expert consultant from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"The drug authorities should have confirmed that the official representing them was prepared for a legal battle," Hanif added.
The Daily Star investigation in 2009 revealed that the case against Adflame Pharmaceutical has always been the strongest of the four cases DDA filed in December 1992 as the syrup was used in both Shishu Hospital and the Bangabhaban clinic where hundreds of children died.
Moreover, Flammodol was tested positive for containing diethylene glycol both in government tests and two separate tests in two US laboratories organised by Dr Hanif -- one in early 1991 and another in late 1992.
The other companies charged in 1992 are Polychem Laboratories Ltd, BCI (Bangladesh) Ltd and Rex Pharmaceutical.
The case against Rex Pharma only ended in trial in 2003 and can be taken as an example of how the drug administration officials have been involved in saving the accused.
The flaws The Daily Star probe uncovered in Rex Pharma trial was that no evidence was given about the role of the WHO in supervising the tests. The test report, produced by WHO Consultant SK Roy, was not even shown to the court, prompting the court to think that the investigation was not done properly.
Though the test was done at Essential Drug Company Limited (EDCL), government official laboratory to test drug, it was not mentioned in the trial.
Yet the prosecutor did not inform the court that the place of test is not important when it is conducted in presence of analysts from the government's drug testing laboratory with suitable equipment.
"The statement Khair gave cannot be accepted as merely a fact of forgetting information about an incident just because it happened many years ago. Often drug cases cannot be proved in court just because of neglect by DDA and its officials," said Mahmud Hossain Jahangir.
Currently, the drug administration has only 22 to 23 pending cases with the court, mostly filed on trivial charges like publication of illegal advertisements and sales of medicines meant for free distribution.
The Daily Star investigation found that since 1998 the DDA filed only 38 cases, mostly on trivial charges, except for 2002 and 2003 when 25 and 28 cases were filed respectively.
The mother of Tanvir Ahmed Biplob, one-and-a-half-year old boy who died after taking the adulterated syrup 16 years ago, was speechless listening to the news of Khair's statement.
"I want justice. I want punishment of those who manufactured such syrup and also of those who are trying to destroy the case through false statement," said Peyara Begum as she cried recollecting the last days of her ailing child when at least four to five children died every day at Shishu Hospital.
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