The High Court has ordered to stop excessive pricing of medicines. At the same time, the Director General of the Department of Health has been asked to inform the High Court within 30 days about the action against the drug companies.
On Monday (April 29), the double bench of the High Court headed by Justice Mostafa Zaman Islam gave this order. Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, the petitioner’s lawyer, said that the High Court gave this order after hearing the writ petition filed by the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) challenging the inaction of the drug administration. At that time, the court also ordered the pharmaceutical companies to stop importing unauthorized raw materials.
The court even ordered to stop the sale of foreign medicines without approval. In the order, the health secretary and the director general of drug administration were asked to implement the order.
Earlier, CAB had filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the legality of drug companies’ ‘arbitrary and illegal’ hike in drug prices. The writ sought directions to ban the import and sale of raw materials by companies whose drug prices are not fixed as per Section 30 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act-2023.
