?3bn Worth of Bad Drugs Destroyed

Pharmaceuticals Products worth about ?3 billion were over the weekend destroyed at the Oblogo Damp Fill in Accra.

The pharmaceutical, which were mainly multivitamins, analgesics, and anti-tetanus drugs, were confiscated somewhere last year, jointly by the Custom Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB).

The products were smuggled into the country from Nigeria by a group of traders who forged the signature of the chief executive of FDB as giving them approval for the usage of the products.

Briefing the press, the chief executive, Mr. Emmanuel Agyarko, explained that the law does not allow over land importation of pharmaceutical products since most of pharmaceuticals to be kept in cool temperature.

He said after a thorough examination by the FDB, it was detected that some of the products were harmful for human consumption.

He assured that the rest of the drugs, which were wholesome, had been sold and the money deposited into the consolidated funds.

Mr. Agyarko said the law would deal with the smugglers severely since they forged documents granting them approval for consumption.

He said that, "for along period this has been the major seizure of goods".

Meanwhile this paper gathered that the FDB together with CEPS and Accra Metropolitan Assembly, as part of a special pre-Christmas exercise in 1999, held a number of meetings with importers, ware house owners and operators to draw the awareness on importation of regulated products and good ware house management, they (FDB, CEPS and AMA) inspected 25 warehouses, through this cause, the FDB confiscated and destroyed products worth ?397million, in 2000 the figure reduced to ?297 million and in 2001 the figure again reduced sharply to ?40.5 million indicating that ware house owners were exercising better ware house management practices but it seems the figure has shot up as at the end of last year..

Disclosing this in an interview with the Chronicle, the head of the Food Division of FDB, Mr. Van-Ess said, there have been post market surveillance activities, which have ensured adequate monitoring and support from the media sensitizing the public about expired products.

According to Mr. Kwamina Van-Ess the improved level of consumer awareness has brought up increased number of consumer complaints the consumer complainants statistics have risen from four in 1999 to 12 in 2000 and 26 in 2001.

He noted that the consumption of expired products expose consumers to the dangers associated with chemical hazards, which could result in development of cancer in the long run or cause immediate death.

He said that, "it is an economic fraud that the consumer suffers any economic disadvantage for any purchase made".