Companies importing fake drugs could be blacklisted

The Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey, has disclosed that pharmaceutical companies caught for importing fake drugs into the country could be blacklisted.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has started retrieving ‘dangerous drugs’ supplied to hospitals by three pharmaceutical companies - Lymens Medical Supplies Limited, Osons Chemists and Sarkuff Pharmacy – after they were alleged to have fraudulently imported unregistered, fake and substandard drugs onto the market.

The FDA is already preparing to prosecute the three pharmaceutical companies.

But the Minister of Health in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story Monday said the ministry has taken the issue “very, very seriously”, and predicted dire consequences for the culpable companies as her outfit awaits report on police investigations into the incident.

“Apart from facing criminal charges, they can also be blacklisted from supplying drugs to the Ministry of Health and also hospitals. This is a very serious issue.”

She described as unfortunate the level of fake drugs in various health facilities across the nation, and advocated that the number of people in charge of monitoring should be increased.

Madam Sherry Ayittey also wants a relook at the procurement process as she called for the issuance of “special permit for such drugs to be warehoused privately” in designated warehouses.

“I think if we are able to do that we can also cut down the incidence of fake drugs into the country.”

Meanwhile, a doctor at the Winneba Government Hospital Dr. Mohammed Abdallah has narrated to Joy News how his patient died about three years ago at the hospital, which he “strongly believe shouldn’t have occurred”.

He noted that it was rare for a person giving birth for the first time to have her uterus not contracted after birth.

But he said after several “shots” of medicines, he now suspects are fake, were administered on the woman, the uterus failed to respond and she bled to death.

He also blamed the way the drugs are managed at the health facilities, saying doctors do not have the “opportunity to determine its quality”. He explained that the drugs are procured and placed in the theatre only and are given when you need them in an emergency situation.