Having a valid drug license from DGDA is mandatory to operate any private drug shop; however, thousands of drug shops are doing business without a DGDA license. Without more staff, DGDA has difficulty in monitoring the situation. As DGDA’s partner in improving good pharmacy practice in Bangladesh, starting on November 21, 2021, BHB began helping to spot the unlicensed drug shops in eight divisional city corporations. BHB recruited a field team comprised of a coordinator, a quality control supervisor, and 16 enumerators. BHB developed an electronic data collection tool to enable the team to collect data using tablets or smart phones. The field team members received training, logistics information, and authorization letters from the DGDA and Bangladesh Chemist and Druggist Samity (BCDS) and started collecting data on November 27, 2021. By December 31, 6,862 unlicensed medicine outlets from the eight divisional city corporations had been identified.
