All Rid Pharma execs acquitted [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

All Rid Pharma execs acquitted

Local November 29, 2016

The Dhaka Drug Court on Monday acquitted all the five accused, top officials of Rid Pharmaceuticals Limited, of the charges of producing and marketing toxic Paracetamol syrup that caused the deaths of at least 28 children in 2009.
The judge of the court, M Atowar Rahman, pronounced the verdict in presence of two accused – Rid Pharmaceuticals he company managing director Mizanur Rahman and director Sheuly Rahman, also Mizanur’s wife.
The rest three accused, the company’s director Abdul Gani and pharmacists Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Haque, were tried in their absence as they were still in hiding.
In the verdict, the court observed that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt and the accused were acquitted of the charges due to negligence in the investigation into, and the filing of, the case.
Later, public prosecutor Nadim Miah told reporters that the decision on appeal against the verdict would be made after getting the certified copy of the verdict.
He said that there was a flaw in the investigation as the evidence of the case was not collected properly.
The court found negligence and inefficiency of drug administration’s superintendent Shafiqul Islam, also the plaintiff of the case, for his failure to collect evidence properly, Nadim said quoting the verdict.
The toxic paracetamol syrup of the company, which was the main evidence in the case, was collected from Dhaka Shishu Hospital, instead of the drug factory, Nadim quotted the judge as observing.
The verdict, quoted by Nadim, said that it could not be proved that Rid Pharmaceuticals produced and marketed the sample of toxic syrup which was collected from Dhaka Shishu Hospital and produced before the court as evidence.
The verdict said that the sample of evidence in a drug case needed to be preserved in four procedures which were not followed by the plaintiff.
The plaintiff, accused’s lawyer, the laboratory and the court need to preserve separate samples of evidence in a drug case.
Even no evidence was kept in court, said Nadim quoting the verdict.
The Directorate-General of Drug Administration drug superintendent Md Shafiqul Islam on August 10, 2009 field the case accusing the five executives of the company of producing and marketing paracetamol syrup brand Temset in spite of its toxicity.
The Dhaka drug court on February 9, 20111 framed the charges against the five.
On 22 July, 2009, drug administration’s superintendent Abdul Khayer Chowdhury sealed off Rid Pharma’s factory at Nandanpur in Brahmanbaria.
Four more cases were filed against Rid Pharma in Brahmanbaria, Narayanganj, Comilla and Sylhet.
The drug administration collected samples of Temset and had them analysed, and laboratory tests confirmed the presence of toxic diethylene glycol in the syrup.
At least 28 children died of acute renal failure after taking Temset between June and August 2009.
Most of them were from districts surrounding Brahmanbaria where the Rid Pharma’s factory is located, and they were reportedly administered Temset, the toxic analgesic syrup, produced by the company.
The investigation found that the company used diethylene glycol, meant for tannery and rubber industries, instead of propylene glycol, which was five times costlier. Diethylene glycol cost Tk 200 a litre and propylene glycol costs Tk 1,100 at that time.
Rid Pharma received its drug manufacturing licence in 2006 and started marketing 12 drugs.
The company also violated the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982 by manufacturing paracetamol syrup as it had obtained permission for manufacturing paracetamol in suspension only, according to the charge.
The then health minister AFM Ruhal Haque on July 29, 2009 confirmed the presence of diethylene glycol in a batch of Temset syrup produced by Rid Pharma after receiving the report of the official committee investigating the latest spate of child deaths caused by the toxic medicine.
Analgesic syrup, Flammadol, containing diethylene glycol caused kidney diseases in 339 children in 1991, and 76 of them died.
On July 22, 2014, the drug court sentenced three owners and executives of sealed Adflame Pharmaceuticals to imprisonment for 10 years for producing the toxic analgesic syrup, Flammadol, with diethylene glycol in 1991.
The drug court judge, Abdur Rashid, jailed Adflame Pharmaceuticals managing partner Helena Pasha, also a physician, her brother Mizanur Rahman, also the company’s director (administration), and production in-charge Nrigendranath Bala for 10 years.
This was the first court verdict convicting any drug manufacturers of adulterating lifesaving drugs, according court officials.