The cost of healthcare became an intense political issue with the systematic analysis of multinational pharmaceutical corporations and their track record. Medicines and their cost, and affordable access to healthcare, were too important to be left to doctors in big hospitals and executives of drug companies, and to indifferent governments. Such issues were discussed through the 1970s to the turn of the 21st century. Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury was part of this generation of pioneers. On his second death anniversary, the author remembers his qualities as a person and as a freedom fighter, and his contributions to public health, especially the landmark 1982 Drug Policy of Bangladesh.