Dhaka //

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken the initiative to launch government pharmacies across the country for the first time to make quality medicines easily available and affordable for everyone. Special Assistant Professor Sayedur Rahman of the ministry confirmed this information to the media on Tuesday (April 8).

He said, “Initially, 250 types of widely used medicines will be available in these pharmacies, which will be sold at one-third of the market price.”

Sayedur Rahman said, “Although government hospitals and clinics have labs and other services, there was no pharmaceutical service until now. These new pharmacies will fill that gap.”

He said that these affordable pharmacies will be launched in all government hospitals and clinics. He also said that a large part of the medical expenses of patients are spent on medicines, which often brings poor families below the poverty line. This initiative will benefit crores of people suffering from long-term diseases, especially diabetes and high blood pressure.

According to the Health Department, one of the challenges facing government pharmacies is to prevent the trend of drug theft. Therefore, a plan has been taken to digitize the entire system.

Currently, EDCL (Essential Drugs Company Limited) supplies medicines worth about Tk 1,300 crore annually. This time, this production and supply capacity will be further increased, and the budget will be increased to increase the supply of medicines as needed, said Professor Sayedur Rahman.

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