Homeopathic doctors stare at drug law denting their practice

The country’s homeopathic treatment sector is staring at growing uncertainty as provisions of the Narcotics Control Act, 2022 governing the purchase, sale, storage and use of alcohol and spirit threaten to cast a regulatory shadow over medicines that routinely use alcohol as a key ingredient.

Homeopathic practitioners and industry stakeholders fear that unless the contentious provisions are amended, the sector could face serious disruption, with medicine prices soaring, supplies drying up and physicians, importers and sellers facing mounting regulatory complications.

Homeopathy remains widely used in Bangladesh, particularly for its relatively low cost and easy accessibility. But stakeholders say the existing legal framework is now piling new hurdles on importers, manufacturers, sellers and practitioners, putting an established treatment system under increasing pressure. When contacted by phone, Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) Additional Director General Mohammad Golam Azam said the authority has no plan to amend the law. Rather, the DNC has begun enforcing the provisions strictly and urged stakeholders to comply with the law.

He said homeopathic practitioners are required to obtain licences from the DNC under the existing legal provisions. The regulatory tangle stems largely from the fact that homeopathic medicines are already governed by the country’s drug laws. Stakeholders said the medicines are imported under the Drugs Rules, 1946, the Drugs Control Ordinance, 1982, and subsequently the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 2023.

Registered practitioners and importers are required to secure approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), while medicines are imported according to approved lists, quantities and designated HS codes. At the heart of the dispute is rectified spirit or ethyl alcohol, routinely used in the preparation and preservation of homeopathic medicines and mother tinctures.

Under the narcotics legislation, substances containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol may fall within the definition of narcotic substances. This has created a regulatory conundrum for homeopathic medicines, some of which contain alcohol concentrations far exceeding that threshold.

Stakeholders point to internationally recognised homeopathic pharmacopoeias and products manufactured by companies such as Boric & Taffel of the United States and Willmar Schwabe of Germany, saying some preparations contain alcohol concentrations of up to 97 percent. They also cite a 2024 letter issued by then DGDA Director General Major General Kazi Md Rashid-un-Nabi regarding an imported consignment.

According to the letter, alcohol content in homeopathic medicines generally ranges between 30 and 95 percent, depending on the medicine and the recognised homeopathic pharmacopoeia. It also noted that samples of mother tinctures and potency medicines containing 49 percent and 90 percent alcohol were consistent with the relevant pharmacopoeia.