Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 197

that they are found to be harmful or carry an "unacceptable level of risk".(l56)
In developed countries governments retain the right to withdraw registration from
drugs on other criteria such as lack of proof of efficiency. In Britain drugs must
also be licensed for each indication - a far cry from the blanket approval advocated
in the Bangladesh manufacturers' stand.
The substance of this lobby directly contradicts many of the key policy measures
that the UN agencies have urged developing countries to adopt to serve the interests
of the majority of their people. However European and US parent companies
that we have consulted fully endorse the stand taken by their Bangladesh
subsidiaries. For example, the chairman of ICI Pharmaceuticals Division
comments, "I cannot accept your assertion that the stand taken by the
(Bangladesh) Association 'shows disregard for the social implications and the
health needs of the mass of the poor in Bangladesh'. The substance of the
Association's complaint is that retail prices are fixed by the government in an
apparently arbitrary manner rather than according to a displayed and rational
formula. As a consequence, of this manufacturers are not able to earn a return
on their investment which will permit an adequate surplus for reinvestment'and
expansion of their business." (157) Other parent companies also critisise
' 'arbitrary price fixing'' in Bangladesh. None that we approached has responded
to the critical issue of the social implications of their opposition to Government
attempts to cut down on wasteful and unnecessary drugs.

BRAVE NEW POLICIES
This report might have ended here. The situation up to June 1982 gave little cause
for optimism for the poor in Bangladesh and many other developing countries.
Given the political and economic constraints, health authorities seemed unlikely
to press ahead with the comprehensive new drug policies urgently needed to
improve the supply of essential drugs.
However, recent events in Bangladesh mean that we can end with a positive and
encouraging postscript. On 12 June 1982 the Chief Martial Law Administrator
passed a Drugs (Control) Ordinance - the first step in implementing a radically
new national drug policy designed to give priority to the production of 150 essential
drugs. Under this ordinance the registration of over 1,700 unnecessary, harmful
and otherwise undesirable drugs has been suspended. (158>
The Bangladesh Government acted on the recommendations of its specially
appointed an eight-person Expert Committee which drafted the new national drug
policy and carried out a major review of over 4,000 products licensed for sale
in the country. Bearing in mind the country's priority needs, the Expert Committee
identified 16 categories of non-essential or otherwise problematic drugs to provide
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