Accra, Jan 27, GNA- The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) on Tuesday urged Veterinary Drugs Companies to register with the board before the end of June.
At a meeting with owners of 25 companies in Accra, Mr Emmanuel Kwabena, Agyarko, Chief Executive, FDB said the board would no longer tolerate the apathy on the part of the company owners to register their products with the board.
The Food and Drugs law; (PNDC Law 305 B) requires importers and producers of veterinary drugs to register them with the Food and Drugs Board.
The law says: "No person shall manufacturer prepare, sell, supply, export or import into Ghana any drug, cosmetic device or chemical unless the article has been registered by the FDB" Mr Agyarko said the non-conformance on the part of the companies has led to the flooding of the market with unwholesome veterinary drugs, sale of expired veterinary drugs to livestock farmers, and warehouse practices that leaves much to be desired.
" We should not forget that almost all the livestock treated with the drugs from the market ends on a dinner table of one person or the other and if the right drugs are not used, the ultimate suffer is us humans, " he said.
Mr Agyarko said that from 1996 to date only five companies out of the 25 known and four veterinary hospitals had made some efforts to regularize their activities with the Board.
"We cannot continue to look on unconcern as a regulatory board to let sleeping dogs lie. We need to start taking action and the time is now", he said.
Mr Agyarko said drug in law has been defined to include those taken by both humans and animals and it has to be enforced to ensure the safety of the animals as well as humans who are at the receiving end. He said a fee of 500,000 cedis would be charged for the registration, which expires after a period of three years. This amount, he noted, was to enable the board carry out the necessary analysis for each drug.
Dr M. Mohammed -Alfa, Head Veterinary Unit of FDB said there were a lot of fake veterinary drugs on the market and there was the need to flush out all the quack by getting the companies both local and importers to register.
