Most pharma companies tempt doctors with 'gifts'

With a view to popularising their brands, most of the pharmaceutical companies in the country allegedly practice unethical drug promotion alluring doctors with free samples and gifts to prescribe their medicines.
To stop such unethical promotion of drugs, there was no effective implementation of the Drugs (Control) Ordinance, 1982 that regulates manufacture, import, distribution and sale of drugs in Bangladesh.
The Drug Administration, which regulates manufacture, import and quality control of drugs in the country, is also inactive to put a stop to such unethical practices.
Pharmaceutical companies practice drug promotion to boost sales and earn more profit, although it is clearly unethical, Prof Dr M Sharfuddin Ahmed, secretary general of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), told the news agency.
Sharfuddin, also chairman of the Eye Department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), said Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies produce standard medicines but all companies cannot produce quality products.
According to the industry sources, the pharmaceutical companies allocate huge sums in their annual budget for gifts to be distributed among the medical practitioners. A number of representatives of pharmaceutical companies, both local and multinational, said they often bribe doctors to promote their particular drugs.
M Shahin Shah, former medical representative of a pharmaceutical company, said the pharmaceutical companies offer attractive gifts to the doctor on various occasions. “The pharmaceutical companies offer doctors many things - from pens to cash money - as part of their promotional activities. Sometimes they even undertake decoration of the doctors and also offer sarees for doctors' wives,” he said.
Narrating his own experience, Shahin said that during his service as a medical representative, he offered crystal flower vase to a doctor to prescribe his company's drugs. Instantly, the doctor prescribed the tablet for a patient without trying to know its quality.
He said that many companies give Tk 5,000-10,000 to popular and familiar doctors per month in rural areas to promote their drugs. This rate is reportedly higher in urban areas.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) Deputy Director Farida Yeasmin, who is working for strengthening the government regulatory bodies like Drug Administration, stressed full implementation of the Drug Act as well as effective inspection and monitoring on manufacturing, marketing and use of drugs.
She suggested the government to recruit more manpower in the Drug Administration to make it more effective as well as formulate 'Code of Marketing' to check such unethical practice to save the lives of people.