The National Parliament of Bangladesh passed the Drug and Cosmetics Act 2023 on 7 September 2023, which was published as a national gazette on 18 September 2023 (Law No. 29 of 2023). BHB’s staff members worked closely with the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) during the drafting and fine-tuning of this law, which was updated to add cosmetics to DGDA’s purview. The new act defines 30 offenses related to production, sale, and marketing of fake and adulterated medicines and cosmetics that endanger public health including up to life-term imprisonment for manufacturing medicines without government registration, producing fake medicines, or creating an artificial shortage of medicines in the market. Other potential punishments include up to 10 years for selling medicines earmarked for government distribution for free of charge and up to one year for selling expired medicines. A retailer can be fined 20,000 in Bangladesh currency for selling antimicrobials or other prescription-only medicines without prescription. The law states that the production, quality control, distribution, supply, and storage of medicines should follow World Health Organization (WHO) Good Practices (GxP). The law also requires that pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and establishments that display and store medicines must employ pharmacists, diploma pharmacists, or pharmacy technicians and provide their updated information to the licensing authority.
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