Parliament: Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim on Tuesday said Bangladesh government has taken an initiative to set up 'model pharmacies', at the district and upazila level including the divisional cities to resist the selling contaminated, duplicate and substandard drugs.

"The government already has approved 150 pharmacies across the country including the Dhaka city as the 'model pharmacy' and it [the programme] is going on," said the minister replying to a query from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal lawmaker Begum Lutfa Taher (women seat-40) in the house.

Nasim told the parliament that the model pharmacy will not only help supply quality drugs among the people but also to know on accurate use of drugs.

Terming the drug sector as one of an industrial sector of the country, the health minister said around 98 per cent of the drugs of the total demand of the country are being manufactured in locally.

At present, various drugs manufactured in the country and its raw materials are being exported to some 127 foreign countries, said the minister, adding that the quantity of drug export is gradually increasing.

Regarding the government initiative to check the manufacture and selling of contaminated drugs, Nasim said the Department of Drug Administration and the other law enforcing agencies are quite aware to check the manufacture of contaminated drugs.

Under the initiative, he said the mobile courts have already filed 2,775 cases against different pharmacies and pharmaceuticals companies for manufacturing and selling of contaminated and substandard drugs between January 2016 and April 2017.