Square Pharmaceuticals' unlawful practice with imported medicine but Department of Livestock remains unresponsive

Square Pharmaceuticals Limited paying no heed to import law goes ahead with repackaging and dosage disparity of the imported herbal coccidiostat at which many poultry farmers are facing irreparable loss for their business activities in the days to come.

Regarding this, Engineer Imrul Hasan, owner of Zero Antibiotic Poultry Farm Organic Chicken, have been affected by this, and they have claimed to have suffered crores of taka losses. As a result, he urges the Livestock Department authorities to take disciplinary measures against them who are responsible for such crime.

The complainant states that the dosage of this product, manufactured by Switzerland's Life Circle Nutrition, is fixed at 1 kg per ton for the first 14 days, and 500 grams thereafter. But Square Pharma has been selling it in Bangladesh at 300-500 grams per ton, keeping this information secret. But in the copy of the technical presentation of this product made in 2021, Square Pharma conducted trials in Kishoreganj (Dr. Md. Ashraful Islam) and Mymensingh (Dr. Md. Kamrul Hasan) areas at a dose of 1 kg to 2 kg per ton. Nutritionists and concerned people believe that the dose was hidden because the dose was not mentioned even in the original 20 kg packet of the imported product.

Although Square Pharmaceuticals was found guilty in the investigation of the complaint, the concerned department has not yet taken any punitive action. Deputy Director of the department Dr. Shahinur Islam told the reporter, Square cannot commit dose fraud and repackaging. It does not have the right to change the dose even through trials. We have shown the case and received their reply. He could not give a satisfactory answer to the question why punitive action is not being taken.

The director (administration) of the department, Dr. Md. Boyzar Rahman, said that Square has admitted its mistake in response to the department's show cause notice and has written that it will not happen in the future. We have asked the complainant farmer to pay compensation. 

Md. Jahangir Alam, Chief Financial Officer of Square Pharmaceuticals, questioned the complainant farmer's farm management skills over the phone and said, "Is he taking advice from a veterinarian? Check if he has a valid license." When asked to specifically know what he said in response to the show cause notice of the Department of Livestock, he said, "I am busy. My assistant will contact you" and disconnected the connection.

In this regard, veterinary doctor Dr. Masudul Islam (Registration No. 4713) told the reporter, this dose fraud by Square is unethical. The chickens of the complaining farm were infected with coccidiosis, there is evidence of it in the scoring sheet and this happened because of Square's concealment of the dose.

Nutritionist Chayan Kumar Barm (Registration No. 28973) said, the product is good, but the dose given by Square is not declared by the manufacturer, but rather they have made it themselves. This is unacceptable.

Complainant farm engineer Imrul Hasan expressed his anger and told the reporter, we have faced huge losses by following the declared dose of Square. Despite being informed many times, they have cheated. 

Square's managing director Tapan Chowdhury and director Anjan Chowdhury did not comment on the allegations when contacted by mobile phone. Anjan Chowdhury replied to a text message that he is out of the country and is not in charge of the pharma.