A mobile court, run by the RAB, fined Kakrail Lazz Pharma, a franchise of the pharmacy chain in Dhaka, Tk 2.9 million for selling expired drugs.
Polash Basu, executive magistrate of RAB-3, said they seized 80 types of unauthorised foreign drugs and 20 types of expired medicine in the store during a drive on Monday.
The shop has also tampered with labels to change expiry dates. Its licence expired in 2018, but the store has not renewed it.
The seized drugs are worth over Tk 3.0 million.
The RAB detained seven people over the seizure. Five of them were fined Tk 500,000 each and the two others Tk 200,000 each.
They will have to serve prison sentence of three months if they do not pay the fines.
The shop’s proprietor, Abdus Sattar Mohammad, was not at the shop during the drive.
Anwar Hossain, the managing director of Lazz Pharma, said there could be “some” expired drugs in the store.
“But our salesmen always check the products before selling them. We keep the expired drugs to send those back to the companies,” he said.
They buy the unauthorised “life-saving” foreign drugs from importers who bring the medicines legally, Anwar claimed, bdnews24.com.