Poison in name of medicine: The invisible war of medical trade against humanity

The advancement of medical science has taken the world to an unprecedented height today. Human life expectancy has increased, methods of curing diseases have improved—but hidden behind this progress lies a cruel reality: medicine has now become a profitable business, and human beings have turned into laboratory subjects.

According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation, the use of mental health-related drugs has increased by almost 75 per cent worldwide over the past 10 years. Besides, the rates of suicide, depression, insomnia and mental disorders have also risen at the same pace. In other words, medicines are increasing, but wellness is not. Where the purpose of medical science was healing, profit has now become the main goal.

An unannounced empire of pharmaceutical companies has developed across the world. They exert influence on doctors in various ways—through prescription bonuses, foreign trips, gifts, and financial donations in the name of research. It is not patients, but prescriptions, that drive the business. Patients do not know which medicines are necessary and which are merely part of sales. Doctors are often forced to prescribe drugs they themselves do not fully believe in.

The situation in Bangladesh is even more critical. A “robbery syndicate’’ has entered the medical system here. The health sector has become a maze where a group of dishonest businessmen, pharmaceutical mafias and powerful brokers are filling their pockets by exploiting patients’ weakness and ignorance.

In Dhaka’s Babubazar, pregnancy test kits and condoms were being illegally produced—with fake materials and without accurate results. In Khulna, a pharmacy named “Laz Pharma” was selling counterfeit drugs under foreign labels. Fake hepatitis and tetanus vaccines were being made in Keraniganj. A factory producing fake cancer and COVID-19 medicines was uncovered in Demra.

In Chattogram, 44 per cent of pharmacies are selling controlled drugs without prescriptions—such as benzodiazepines, which cause addiction and suicide risk in the long term. In Pirojpur District Hospital, corruption involving medicine purchases worth crores of taka was exposed—the medicines never reached the hospital, but the bills were paid. An investigation is also underway against Essential Drugs Company Limited over corruption of Tk 477 crore, where tender rules and production processes were violated. During COVID-19 vaccine procurement too, a syndicate burdened the government and public with excessive costs.

Notes on sources
Most of the incidents mentioned in this report are based on information published in various media and government investigation records. For example—DB and Drug Administration operations seizing fake test kits in Dhaka’s Babubazar (2023), the arrest of a fake Hepatitis-B vaccine manufacturer in Keraniganj, a 2018 public health study on unprescribed drug sales in Chattogram, corruption in medicine purchases at Pirojpur District Hospital, and the ACC investigation (2023–24) into Tk 477 crore of financial irregularities at Essential Drugs Company Limited.

These incidents are not isolated, but symptoms of a deep disease. Doctors, officials, and pharmaceutical representatives together have created a vicious circle, with money and influence at its centre. To increase their sales, drug companies have turned “pain” into a product. When a person is under mental stress, instead of counselling they are given drugs—when someone feels anxious, they get tranquillisers instead of therapy. As a result, a group of dependent people is being created in society, who cannot understand their own mental pain but only cover it up with medicine.

This is a kind of institutional addiction—the medical profession itself has become dependent on drugs, and true healing is now secondary. Advertisements claim “a new life”, “freedom from sleeplessness”, “relief from anxiety”—but because of the side effects of these drugs, countless people suffer from mental instability every day, and some even lose their lives.

This profit-centred mentality within the health sector is creating a profound moral crisis in society. When a doctor is forced to be accountable to a company representative instead of a patient, medicine ceases to be a profession and becomes a sales process. The patient is no longer seen as a person, but as a “target” on whom sales and bonuses depend.

In this reality, our trust is silently dying. Once seen as half-divine in people’s eyes, the doctor is now viewed by many as just another businessman. The doctor who once listened to a patient’s pain is now busy listening to a company’s sales report. The hospital that once provided refuge now sends bills.

Even so, the light has not gone out completely. There are still some honest doctors, researchers and social workers who are saying, “Heal the person, and not just prescribe medicine.” Mental health is not only about tablets; it requires empathy, listening, love and social solidarity. Only when a patient is treated as a human being will medicine return to its true purpose.

To overcome this crisis, three things are needed: moral reconstruction, transparency, and public accountability. Every drug approval, every medical trial decision, every government tender—all must be open and transparent. Medicine is not the property of any company; it is a human right.

The immunity of a society is not built through medicine alone—it is built through justice, honesty and food safety. Pure food and corruption-free administration are the true foundations of public health. Research shows that societies with higher morality, trust and food purity have comparatively lower rates of infectious diseases.

In Bangladesh, around 40 per cent of food produced daily contains adulterated ingredients—formalin in milk, lead in oil, calcium carbide in fruits. These toxic substances not only harm the body but also damage the genetic structure of future generations. Thus, no matter how good the medicine, the root of disease remains untouched. Adulterated food weakens the body just as corruption destroys the state’s resistance.

If a farmer can produce honestly, a trader can sell at a fair price, and the administration supervises with integrity—then the number of hospital patients will fall by half. Pure food, a clean environment and good governance together build a nation’s “immune system”. True healing therefore begins with food, with the mind, and with morality.

Medicine is humane only when it rises above profit. A drug saves life only when used under the control of conscience. Otherwise, it becomes a scientifically approved poison—slowly killing not our bodies, but our trust, our humanity.

Rahman Mridha: Researcher, writer and former director, Pfizer, Sweden