What is for the ICDDR,B ?

Mahmood Ali

In Bangladesh there are plenty of organizations which are receiving
foreign funds under the pretext of helping the poor of Bangladesh. The
International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh
(ICDDR,B), is such a big one. It is essential to examine their works
and demystify their role. Mahmood Ali attempts an exposure of the
specific case with documentary arguments. He insists that the ICDDR,B
spends money, collected in the name of poor, for purposes which have
little to do with the diarrheal problem of the people of Bangladesh.
We encourage our readers to write more on similar cases.

Deaths due to diarrhea are reported frequently in the newspapers of
Bangladesh. An editorial on this problem published in a leading daily
at the beginning of the new millennium is worth noting. It stated,
"Although we have stepped into a new century as well as a new
millennium, the scourge of diarrhea is continuing to stalk us. This
underlines the grim fact that even now all parts of the country are
yet to be in a position where safe drinking water is easily accessible
to the people. Moreover, severe financial constraints still hold back
development in many pockets of the community making a sad mockery of
health, hygiene and sanitation in this 21st century" (1).

On February 11, 2001 the same newspaper had printed a news item on the
utilization of foreign aid in Bangladesh. The title of the news item
is self-explanatory. "Where does all foreign aid go? Seventy-five
percent of donor's money looted by local, foreign elite". According to
this report, foreign aid has created long-term dependency and
criminalized the politics and economy of the country. In the light of
these developments it is important to take a critical look at those
institutions which are receiving foreign funds under the pretext of
helping the poor of Bangladesh.

While the Government of Bangladesh may not have adequate funding, the
International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh
(ICDDR,B), using the name of the poor of Bangladesh, collects millions
and millions of dollars from several countries and organizations. But
the ICDDR,B spends money for purposes, which have little to do with
the diarrheal problem of the people of Bangladesh. The situation is
analogous to the owner of a crippled person lying in a small box with
wheels underneath. The owner uses the crippled person to collect
money. But how much does it really go to the welfare of the crippled
person? The owner's livelihood would disappear in the absence of the
crippled person. The ICDDR,B is like the owner of the crippled person.
Tragically Bangladesh is being treated like the crippled person in the
box!

The ICDDR,B's background leading to its foundation:
The ICDDR,B is the continuation of the Cholera Research Laboratory
(CRL), originally established in 1960 as a result of the military
alliance between Pakistan and USA under the umbrella of the South
Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO, 2). After the independence of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Founding Prime Minister and
later President of Bangladesh, did not grant any long-term charter as
he wanted CRL to be under national control responsive to the Ministry
of Health (3). He was assassinated in August 1975. The idea of
converting CRL to an international organization was launched in April
1976, only a few months after his assassination (4). Dr. David Sack,
the ICDDR,B�s present director, came to Bangladesh soon after the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Since then he has been
associated with the "activities" of this research Centre. In 1978 the
ICDDR,B obtained a 25-year charter from the Government of Bangladesh
to operate as a research centre to work on diarrheal diseases "with
special relevance to developing countries" (Ordinance No LI of 1978
Government of Bangladesh; 6th Dec 1978). The charter was renewed
further for 25 years in 1998 and was extended up to 2029.

The ICCDR,B - a club of like-minded friends from USA and Sweden :
A "club" comprising a few scientists from USA and their friends from
Sweden basically controls the ICDDR, B. Most of the directors of the
Centre including the present one have come from this "club". Under
severe criticisms in the 1980�s, the Centre once had an Ethiopian as
the director. But he was just window dressing. He was hand picked as
he had been long associated with this "club". The ICDDR,B operates
through very careful manipulations indeed! The American scientists
inside the ICDDR,B do not represent the mainstream of bright and
talented scientists of USA who are making scientific breakthroughs.
Instead, the American scientists, currently associated with the
ICDDR,B including its director Dr. David Sack, have hardly made any
significant scientific contributions. Their purpose of staying in
Bangladesh may be for something else !

In the late 1970�s Dr. David Sack, the ICDDR,B�s present director, was
a junior member of the club controlling the ICDDR,B. He joined in
hands with a group of Swedish scientists. Dr. Jan Holmgren, with an
experience of only 6 years after the doctoral degree, was made a
member of the Board of Trustee of the ICDDR,B. Because of his
membership on the Board of Trustee of the ICDDR,B, Dr. Holmgren found
his way into the Board of SAREC, an organ of the Swedish government's
foreign aid agency. These assignments gave Dr. Holmgren a complete
insight and control over development, financing and marketing of the
products which he, wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm and Dr. David Sack had
been trying to develop at the ICDDR,B. They planned how to get rich
quick and found that one of the ways would be to develop vaccines for
soldiers and tourists from rich countries, who may require protection
for a short period of time whatever may be the cost. They would set up
companies to market products and eventually become millionaires. The
easiest way to obtain funds for the development of such products would
be to use the name of the diarrhoea suffering poor people of
Bangladesh. Money would be collected from various international donors
such as the World Health Organization (WHO), The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and foreign aid agencies of various
governments such as USA, UK, Japan, Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.

Plenty of information has surfaced in the 1990�s. A profit making
business venture in Sweden called SBL-Vaccin AB has evolved out of the
ICDDR,B's active collaboration with the Swedish scientists. The
Swedish government owned SBL-Vaccin AB until 1997 when it was
purchased by a private Swedish company Active Biotech. SBL-Vaccin AB
has changed hands, its owner since 2003 being Chiron Corporation of
USA. SBL-Vaccin AB with Dr. Holmgren as a member of its scientific
council has targeted soldiers and tourists from rich countries, who
may require protection for a short period of time whatever may be the
cost. The company has made several of its key players such as Drs.
Holmgren, Svennerholm and their associates multi-millionaires. But the
money for the development of all these products were collected from
various international donors using the name of the diarrhoea suffering
"poor people" of Bangladesh. As documents reveal, the ICDDR,B's
director Dr. David Sack has been working for SBL-Vaccin AB (5).

The ICDDR,B�s activities in brief:

The ICDDR,B's ongoing research on "Peru-15": a project to develop a cholera
vaccine for the US Army:

The ICDDR,B is currently testing on Bangladeshis a Vibrio cholerae
strain entitled Peru-15, which has been developed by scientists of the
U.S. Army using techniques of genetic engineering (6). AVANT
Immunotherapeutics Inc., a vaccine company from Massachusetts (USA),
has been awarded the license to market Peru-15 for commercial purposes
such as the development of a cholera vaccine entitled CholeraGrade TM
(7). The company has undergone an agreement with the International
Vaccine Institute (IVI) of South Korea and the ICDDR,B to conduct a
field trial in Bangladesh.

AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. maintains very close contact with the
U.S. Department of Defence as it has been working on several U.S.
defence department's projects aimed to provide better health care to
the U.S. Army personnel. To develop CholeraGradeTM as a traveller's
vaccine to be used predominantly by soldiers, has been one of the
goals of AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. This has been mentioned by the
company President Dr. Una Ryan, in her report to the U.S. House of
Representative's Biological Warfare Programs on October 23, 2001 (8).
Thus the ICDDR,B's research on Peru-15 demonstrates the use of
Bangladeshis as experimental guinea pigs for a product to be used by
the soldiers of the US Army. Has this information been disclosed by
the ICDDR,B to the people of Bangladesh? One wonders.

A research carried out covertly on Bangladeshis on behalf of a foreign
military constitutes violation of the national sovereignty of
Bangladesh. Bangladeshis have a right to demand full accountability
and transparency from the ICDDR,B regarding the ongoing vaccine
project Peru-15. Thus a detailed information on the parties involved
in this vaccine such as AVANT Immunotherapeitics Inc and its relation
to the U.S. Department of Defence, the role of the American directed
IVI of South Korea, objectives of the trial and rights of the vaccine
participants in the trial and future marketing of the vaccine.
Incidentally, Dr. John Clemens, Director of the IVI had previously
worked as an epidemiologist at the ICDDR,B and is a close associate of
the ICDDR,B's director Dr. David Sack. Both were deeply involved in
the unethical research related to the Swedish cholera vaccines
performed on the Bangladeshis. This would be discussed in detail in
section 3.

The ICDDR,B's collaboration with the Israel Defence Force
Collaborative activities among a group of scientists employed by the
Government of Sweden, the Swedish company SBL-Vaccin AB, members of
the Israel Defence Force and a number of the scientists from the
ICDDR,B have been going on for several years with a view to develop a
vaccine against diarrhoea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
(ETEC) which Israel requires for its soldiers. This has been
documented in two scientific publications from USA and UK (9, 10). Dr.
Ann-Mari Svennerholm, a female scientist from Sweden's state-run
Gothenburg University, had been working for several years with the
Israel Defence Force. They had been testing the same ETEC-vaccine,
which Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm and her colleagues at the ICDDR,B had
been developing. Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm and her principal
Bangladeshi co-worker Dr. Firdausi Qadri had also tested the same lot
of the highly expensive ETEC vaccine (supplied by Sweden's SBL-Vaccin
AB) on the Bangladeshi citizens using them as human guinea pigs. These
activities unequivocally establish the close scientific collaboration
that is prevailing between the ICDDR,B and Israel via Sweden. The
Swedish scientists Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm, her husband Dr. Jan
Holmgren and a number of their subordinate employees from the
University of Gothenburg have been working at the ICDDR,B since 1979.
Their principal contact persons during all these years at the ICDDR,B
had been its present director Dr. David Sack, Dr. Firdausi Qadri, a
Bangladeshi citizen and Dr. John Albert, an Australian expatriate of
Indian origin who worked for ten years (1989-1999). The Swedish
scientists Drs. Holmgren and Svennerholm are deeply associated with
SBL-Vaccin AB. In the share holder's meeting on April 14, 2000,
SBL-Vaccin AB's President Mr. S. Andreasson disclosed that the company
had been trying the ETEC-vaccine on a large number of Israeli soldiers
(11). The ICDDR,B's director Dr. David Sack also works for this
company (5). How much activities are these Swedish scientists and
their ICDDR,B associates carrying out inside Bangladesh on behalf of
Israel is any body's guess.

The ICDDR,B collaborates with Sweden's Karolinska Institute, whose
vice-chancellor was also the chairman of SBL-Vaccin AB supplying
vaccines to the Israel Defence Force (9). Also, Karolinska Institute
has been maliciously engaged in slandering the Muslims (12). Israel
has extensive programmes in biological warfare and has reported to
have developed "ethnic" bullets selectively killing the Arabs (13). In
the 1980's the ICDDR,B violated the foreign policy of the Government
of Bangladesh and collaborated with the apartheid regime of South
Africa, which in turn had an extensive collaboration with Israel in
areas of biological warfare (14).

One wonders whether the ICDDR,B and the scientists of the Government
of Sweden working at the ICDDR,B have revealed their Israeli
connection to the Government of Bangladesh and have obtained official
permission from the Government of Bangladesh to carry out such
collaborative research ventures.

Developing vaccines for rich tourists and soldiers violating the human
rights of the poor
In 1985 the ICDDR,B had tried oral cholera vaccines on 90000 women and
children of Matlab, Bangladesh (15). The Government of Bangladesh had
permitted this trial, as it needed a cholera vaccine providing long
term immunity to the people of Bangladesh who suffer from cholera
(16). Two Swedish governmental scientists from Gothenburg University
(Dr. Jan Holmgren and his wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm) and two
expatriate scientists at the ICDDR,B (Drs. David Sack and John
Clemens) were primarily associated with the trial. The Swedish
Department of Defence had been intimately associated with the
diarrhoeal research of the Swedish scientists at the ICDDR,B by
providing money, materials and manpower (17, 18 ). The trial had
violated the Declaration of Helsinki concerning ethics in biomedical
research involving human subjects on a number of counts (19). Firstly,
no protocol to record side effects was maintained, even though the
trial participants had suffered and complained. Secondly, no proper
informed consent was taken from the trial participants. Thirdly, in
many cases coercive tactics were applied. Fourthly, pregnant women
were immunised and no pregnancy test was carried out. The vaccine,
administered by the neutralisation of gastric acid, had produced side
effects and even a death had been reported in the Bangladeshi press
(20). Finally, the vaccine consisting of a large number of killed
cholera cells and the B subunit of cholera toxin (BS-WC) cost several
dollars. It was extremely expensive and beyond the reach of the
Bangladeshis.

The protective efficacy of the oral cholera vaccine (WC-BS) was short
lived, only observed during the initial period of lean cholera
incidences and rapidly declined afterwards (21). It was practically
ineffective in children, the targeted population in heavily endemic
areas like Bangladesh. After monitoring for one year, it was found
that more children (3-6 years) in the WC-BS group got cholera than
those in other groups including the placebo (21).

The real objective of the trial was to develop a vaccine for soldiers
and tourists from rich countries who may require short-term protection
at any cost. Since 1990, the Government of Sweden had been making huge
profit by marketing this vaccine to soldiers and rich tourists through
its vaccine producing laboratory SBL-Vaccin AB. It is sold under the
trade names of "Dukoral" and "SBL cholera vaccine" at an enormous cost
of Swedish crowns 450 (app. USD 65-75, depending on the exchange
rate). The vaccine had been sold to the US Army for its soldiers in
its war against Iraq (22). Ironically the vaccine was tested in
Bangladesh for use by the poor! To market the vaccine, SBL-Vaccin AB
had stated in an information sheet in 1996 that the vaccine could be
used upon pregnant women, thus supporting the original unethical
intention of using Bangladeshi pregnant women for medical research. If
pregnant women were excluded from the trial, as written by Drs.
Holmgren, Svennerholm and their ICDDR,B associates in 1986 (15), then
how can it be stated in 1996 that the vaccine is safe for pregnant
women! In addition, the trial did not have any provisions for
recording side effects (23). The reality of the matter is that the
whole vaccine research was an exercise in fraud !

Exploitation of Bangladeshi women as experimental guinea pigs
Although cholera can affect both men and women, the trial had
predominantly selected females as vaccine recipients (15). All male
individuals above 15 years of age were excluded. No scientific
explanation of this sex bias has been provided by the Swedish
scientists and their ICDDR,B associates. However, Dr. Holmgren on a
programme on the Swedish National Radio justified the exclusive use of
the Bangladeshi women by stating that men were not available as they
work outside their homes (24). The Bangladeshi women are mostly
Muslims. They work at home and are easily accessible. So they can be
used to test vaccines. This is an excuse to exploit women when it is
convenient to do so because of their social and religious status. It
is worthwhile to point out that in the 1970's the Indian scientists
had carried out a cholera vaccine trial on a large number of
participants involving 101,030 volunteers of neighbouring West Bengal
(25). The Indian study did not display any sex bias as almost equal
number of men and women had participated. If the Indian scientists can
carry out an effective vaccine trial without exerting any sex bias,
why had the Swedish scientists and their American associates of the
ICDDR,B failed to do so? The answer lies in the racist attitude of the
Swedish scientists and their American associates of the ICDDR,B
towards the coloured women of Bangladesh. It has to be emphasised that
the poor women of Bangladesh are not born for testing highly expensive
western drugs and vaccines! Their dignity as human beings should be
recognised and respected as defined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

The trial and the protest
Protests against the trial had been launched in the press and on the
radio both in Sweden and in Bangladesh in the 1980's (20, 23, 24,
26-41). In January 1987, hundreds of leading academicians, politicians
and social activists of Bangladesh (including Mr. Mohammed Nasim, Home
Minister, The Government of Bangladesh, 1999-2000) had sent a protest
letter to the Swedish Prime Minister Mr. Ingvar Carlsson concerning
the use of Bangladeshis as experimental animals by Dr. Holmgren,
Ann-Mari Svennerholm and their ICDDR,B associates (Postal registration
no: 56179, Stockholm, Sweden; January 7, 1987).

Dr. Holmgren's accumulation of massive wealth through the cholera vaccine trial
Drs. Jan Holmgren and his wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm claim to be the
inventor of this vaccine Dukoral (42). Dr. Holmgren has illegally
obtained a patent on cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) of the vaccine
Dukoral, in a number of countries including Sweden and USA (The US
Patent # 5268276 dated Dec 7, 1993). He had concealed in his patent
application information on the financial support from WHO that he had
received for his work on CTB (43) . Besides he had applied as a
private person concealing his place of employment. He draws large sum
of money as royalty from the sale of the vaccine Dukoral that includes
CTB. On 29 June 1998 Dr. Holmgren had obtained for his CTB a cash of
Swedish crowns 25.6 million (appx. 3-4 million US dollars) and
agreement on a large number of future shares from the owner of the
Swedish company SBL Vaccin AB (44). But the vaccine Dukoral was
possible only because of the trial that was performed on 90,000 women
and children of Bangladesh. WHO and a number of governments such as
USA, Japan, Canada and Bangladesh had funded this vaccine trial. But
the Swedish vaccine producers (SBL-Vaccin and Active Biotech) had
denied this fact and instead had stated falsely that SBL "has financed
development and clinical testing without external assistance" (44).
Thus, the marketing of the vaccine Dukoral is illegal as it involves
cheating the financial donors such as WHO and several governments
(USA, Canada, Japan and Bangladesh) and 90 000 trial participants of
Bangladesh. Dr. Holmgren has been working as an "expert" in WHO's
programmes on diarrhoea and vaccines for several years. Dr. David Sack
of the ICDDR,B works for the Swedish company SBL Vaccin AB (5). Thus a
racketeering is going on in which the Swedish governmental and private
organisations (SBL-Vaccin AB), two Swedish governmental scientists
(Dr. Holmgren and wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm) and their ICDDR,B
associates (Drs. David Sack and John Clemens) had violated the human
rights of the poor people of Bangladesh. They had used them as
substitutes for laboratory animals to test highly expensive biological
materials with a view to make profits. Dr. Holmgren, Dr. Ann-Mari
Svennerholm and SBL-Vaccin AB must return all the ill-gotten money
they have made not only to the donors (WHO and several governments),
but also to 90 000 poor women and children of Bangladesh.

The ICDDR,B hijacks funds from donors to develop vaccines for soldiers
and rich tourists
The ICDDR,B had "hijacked" millions and millions of dollars from
donors such as WHO, the governments of Japan, Canada and USA (15) for
the development of a cholera vaccine for soldiers and rich tourists.
The tax payers of these countries had given money to the ICDDR,B so
that the poor people of Bangladesh do not suffer from the scourge of
diarrhoea. But the ICDDR,B had utilised that fund to satisfy the greed
of a few interested persons, who want to make money by exploiting the
poor under the slogan of "combating diarrhoea".

The ICDDR,B's Collaboration with the apartheid regime of South Africa
The ICDDR,B had carried out collaborative research on Vibrio cholerae
in the 1980's with the minority white apartheid regime of South
Africa, grossly violating the foreign policy of the government of
Bangladesh (14). Numerous articles protesting this collaborative
research had appeared in the Bangladeshi newspapers and magazines in
the 1980s (27-33, 35, 36). In 1998 the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of the Republic of South Africa has confirmed that the
apartheid regime of South Africa had used Vibrio cholerae as an agent
of biological warfare against the majority black population of the
country (45). In January 1999 the BBC-World TV had shown a dramatic
film called "The Plague Wars" where these facts have been documented.
Why was a foreign expert in areas of bacteriological warfare (Dr.
P.C.B. Turnbull) from a well known biological weapons research centre
of the West invited by the ICDDR,B to come to Bangladesh? The ICDDR,B
had not given any satisfactory explanations on this matter (46). Is
the ICDDR,B carrying out bacteriological warfare or testing agents of
bacteriological warfare upon the people of Bangladesh?

The ICDDR,B spreads communal hatred between the Hindus and the Muslims
The American scientists (John Clemens and Roger I. Glass) of the
ICDDR, B had been engaged in spreading communal hatred by reporting
that the Hindus get more cholera and gastric diseases than the Muslims
(47, 48). How rigorous were these studies performed to make a
generalisation about the Hindus? Are these American scientists
professionally competent to assess great religions like Islam and
Hinduism? This is scientifically erroneous as cholera can kill all
people irrespective of their religions. This disease was highly
prevalent in Europe and America in the nineteenth century killing
thousands of the Christians.

Publication of useless and repetitious materials to "please" uncritical donors
Often repetitious and useless "research" papers lacking both novelty
and practical values are published in certain western journals where
the ICDDR,B has influence. Such useless publications only help to
promote scientific careers of the core members of the ICDDR,B who may
brag about their long list of publications as signs of
accomplishments. Also, uncritical donors can be impressed by such long
list of publications. Many publications are nothing but
"rediscoveries" like old wine in a new bottle. Ironically, as reported
in Bangladesh's largest circulating daily the Ittefaq, most
Bangladeshis do not know the difference between "diarrhoea and
cholera" (49).

Behind the claims for the development of "the oral rehydration therapy"
The ICDDR, B boasts itself of having developed "the oral rehydration
therapy". But it was just a "rediscovery" made in 1968 (50). The
original publication of "the oral rehydration therapy" was made by a
Bengali scientist Dr. Chatterjee of India fifteen years ago in 1953
(51). In a similar way, cholera toxin, which causes cholera, was
discovered by a Bengali scientist Dr. S. N. De of Kolkata (52). The
western scientists are very good in "muscling aside" scientists from
the developing countries by all means and do not hesitate to rob their
ideas and inventions.

Sheltering antique smugglers
The ICDDR,B and its predecessor CRL offer shelter to antique smugglers
who do not hesitate to plunder vast amount of the cultural heritage of
Bangladesh. The case of the American scientist David Nalin who had
smuggled objects from the Bangladeshi museums is well known and had
been reported in the Bangladeshi press such as the Bichitra in 1980.

The ICDDR,B: a threat to regional security
Finally, a word of caution has to be put forward. Many people of
Bangladesh have their relatives in neighbouring India and vice versa.
These people are naturally concerned about the health and welfare of
their close-ones on the other side of the border. Infectious diseases
can easily spread across the border. Therefore, the activities of a
foreign-dominated centre such as the ICDDR,B dealing with highly
pathogenic micro-organisms need to be monitored with great caution so
that Bangladesh can avoid diplomatic problems with her immediate
neighbour.

Under-developing Bangladeshi institutions
It is tragic that while the ICDDR,B squanders away millions and
millions of dollars, the Bangladeshi research centres have little fund
to function adequately. The pathetic plight of the Bangladeshi
scientific community was described by a person no other than the
eminent scientist Dr. Wajed Miah, the husband of the former Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Bangladeshi press in 1998. Recently, a
professor from Rajshahi University has appealed for help over the
Internet for the University's research activities from the
University's old students and teachers living abroad.

On the most effective means to combat diarrhoea
In 1988 the Bangladeshi members of the Standing Committee of the
ICDDR,B, after realising the dismal performance of the Swedish oral
vaccine, had expressed strong reservations. According to an article
published in Bangladesh, internationally reputed scientists such as
Professors Nurul Islam, Kamaluddin Ahmed and Major General M.R.
Chowdhury had questioned whether cholera can be effectively controlled
by vaccination (53). They commented, "Instead of vaccination, emphasis
should be placed on health and sanitary measures along with the supply
of pure drinking water. In this way cholera was eradicated from
Sanghai, The Peoples Republic of China. People believe that by taking
vaccine cholera is being eradicated. But the reality is different".

In this respect the opinion of a pioneering American cholera scientist
Professor R.A. Finkelstein on the Swedish oral vaccine is worth
citing. "As these dead oral cholera vaccines are expensive, difficult
to administer, insufficiently protective, and potentially
non-reproducible (they were constructed arbitrarily and there are no
bioassays that reliably predict efficacy), the reader should not come
away with the impression that they offer a solution to the cholera
problem in the Americas or elsewhere......oral rehydration therapy is
effective and relatively cheap. Intelligent epidemiological control
measures can help, but the best solution resides in providing safe
drinking water and sewage disposal. This can be an expensive
investment, but it is one that will also reduce the burden of other
diarrheal diseases, which, in some heavily afflicted areas, kill half
the children before they reach the age of five" (54).

All what has been described above are scientifically documented and
valid. About twenty five years ago National Professor Nurul Islam had
written a letter in the British medical journal Lancet expressing his
critical viewpoints behind the establishment of such a centre (55).
Time has proven the correctness of Professor Nurul Islam, the founder
of the IPGMR (now known as Bangabandhu Medical University). Do the
people of Bangladesh need a centre like the ICDDR,B working for the
interest of rich nations while collecting money using the name of the
poor?

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