FDA assures public of drug safety

The Food and Drugs Authority has assured the general public of drug safety while insisting there are no poisonous drugs on the Ghanaian market as being speculated in the media.

Speaking on Abusua Nkommo hosted by Kwame Adinkrah, Ashanti Regional Director for the Food and Drugs Authority, Vigil Prah Eshun said the information is false and must not be taken serious.

Prah Eshun was responding to media reports that Ghana has been ranked among countries with high number of poisonous and fake drugs on the market.

According to research, the fake drug market, worth over 400 billion euros, is more profitable than the sale of illicit drugs.

The World Health Organization Report estimated that each year, over 800,000 people, most of them from Ghana and other parts of Africa, die because of fake drugs as they are less expensive and more accessible than the original ones.

Substances like rat poison and anti-freeze have been found in fake pills and serums because they mimic the look and the taste of the real products. Ghana has been ranked the sixth producer of fake drugs by the European Union in 2013.

Fake drugs can be made anywhere, though, Wilfrid Rogé, the director of the Paris-based Research Institute Against Counterfeit Drugs (Iracm), says many are fabricated in the Far-East and India, where compounds for real drugs are manufactured.

But Vigil Prah Eshun says “adequate regulatory measures are in place in line with international best practices to ensure public health and safety and these measures are regularly reviewed to ascertain and improve their continued effectiveness.”

He adds, “with the stringent regulatory measures put by FDA, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has on several occasions recommended several countries on the continent to understudy Ghana FDA’s regulatory systems”.