Scrap levies on imported pharmaceutical products – Chamber of Pharmacy

The Chamber of Pharmacy-Ghana has called on government to scrap all levies on pharmaceutical products which are imported into the country.

This, it revealed, has led to the increase in the prices of drugs on the local market.

These levies, it revealed, have also led to an increase in the pharmaceutical value chain.

These were some of the disclosures made following a two-day media sensitisation programme organised by the Ghana Chamber of Pharmacy to educate media practitioners on the workings and advocacy programmes the chamber has been embarking on.

The chamber also called on government to take steps to stall the rapid depreciation of the cedi against other major currencies since the current slide of the cedi has had an effect on the prices of drugs sold on the Ghanaian market.

Addressing a press conference organised after the media workshop, Mr Harrison Abutiate, chairman of the chamber’s National Executive Council, said, “Those of us who bring in the drugs feel that if the prices are not well controlled, we’re going to have a situation where fake experior drugs can be brought into the country, so we support the registration of medicines or drugs into Ghana. But…! If the fees are too high, these will definitely be passed on to the consumer.”

This, he warned, will lead to the influx of fake medications onto the market.

He went on further to warn against the high cost of registration for drugs, which pharmaceutical companies pay, adding that these prohibitive costs will lead to the flooding of the market with cheap, inferior and generic versions of drugs, which may not prove as efficacious.

He also cited these high registration fees as avenues for corruption as some importers may choose to cut financial and administrative corners in order to make more profits.