Question

Getting the issue of essential drugs onto the policy agenda in Bangladesh Lieutenant-General and Army Chief of Staff HM Ershad seized power in a military coup in Bangladesh in 1982. Within four weeks of the coup he had established an expert commit- tee of eight to confront widely discussed problems in the production, distribution and consumption of pharmaceuticals. Less than three months later the Bangladesh (Control) Ordinance of 1982 was issued as a Declaration by Ershad, based on a set of 16 guidelines that would regulate the pharmaceutical sector. The main aim of the Ordinance was to halve the 'wastage of foreign exchange through the production and/or importation of unnecessary drugs or drugs of marginal value'. The drugs policy was to be applied to both private and public sectors and created a restricted national formulary of 150 essential drugs plus 100 supplementary drugs for specialized use which could be produced a relatively low cost. Over 1.600 products deemed ‘useless, ineffective or harmful, were banned The formulation of the drugs policy was initiated by a group of concerned physicians and others with close links to the new president, without external consultation and discussion. The Bangladesh Medical Association was represented by one member of its pharma- ceuticals sub-committee, but its General-Secretary was not officially involved because of his known connections to a transnational pharmaceutical corporation. The pharmaceutical industry was not represented at all on the expert committee. It was argued that its presence would distort and delay policy change. Once the policy was on the agenda and had been promulgated,the industry,both domestic and transnational, launched an advertis- ing campaign against the drugs list. Among the physicians on the committee was a well-known doctor. Zafrullah Chowdhury who had established the Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK) health care project soon afte independence in 1971.Among other activities, GK manufactured essential generic drugs in Bangladesh. Production had begun in 1981 and by 1986 GK Pharmaceuticals Ltd was- producing over 20 products.Later Dr Chowdhury was accused of promoting the interests of GK Pharmaceuticals through the committee

Answer 1

Both Hall and Kingdom model is the agenda setting models.

Process by which certain issues come onto the policy agenda from the much larger number of issues potentially worthy of attention by policy makers.

Hall model has three main components :-

Feasibility

A characteristic of issues for which there is a practical solution.

Legitimacy

A characteristic of issues that policy makers see as appropriate for government to act on.

Support

A characteristic of issues that the public and other key political interests want to see responded to.

Kingdom model three streams are :-

- problems

- policy

- politics

In this case ,it's said about the new implementation done with in few weeks about drugs , pharmaceutical companies etc by the new government . This case is more to the side of kingdoms model as it was found that there are some issues with the drugs, which are exchanged ,imported and exported by pharmaceutical companies and for this new policies were made ,but along with this they themselves made new brands of drugs to be sold in place of other drugs and also does not have any outside meeting with the external pharmaceutical companies regarding any of the implementation of new policies ,why it's being done etc. Its just simple -corruption right behind the government by being in itself . Developing own pharmaceutical companies and gaining money is the aim by disapproving other brands on the basis of its side effects , cost etc .