HEALTH JUSTICE AND HEALTH EQUALITY

Dear Reader, The Hathi Committee Report of 1975 on the Drugs & Pharmaceutical Industry, running into 278 pages, was widely discussed in India, both inside and outside Parliament, as well as in many other countries across the globe. The Hathi Committee Report was never implemented in India because of its bold and radical recommendations. However, this report inspired several other countries to frame their National Drug Policies much before India did. The then fledgling neighbour Bangladesh was the first country in the world which bravely enacted the Drug Control Ordinance Law in 1982, against huge resistance from several quarters. This law helped Bangladesh to control the cost and supplies of essential medications, especially for its poor and down trodden masses. The essential medicines list of the World Health Organisation owes a lot to Bangladesh for this revolutionary step. Taking the example of Bangladesh, several developing countries including India formulated their own essential medicines lists. This soon led to the availability of cheap essential medicines. The architect of the Bangladesh Ordinance of 1982 was Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury, who had concluded by then that Bangladesh needed only 250 drugs while more than 5000 drugs were existing in the market.