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Concern as counterfeit medicine floods market
Falsified medicines contain ingredients which are of bad quality or wrong dose.
What you need to know:
- Falsified medicines contain ingredients which are of bad quality or wrong dose
As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, authorities have raised concern over the rising manufacture and circulation of falsified medicines.
Falsified medicines contain ingredients which are of bad quality or wrong dose.
Many falsified medicines include anti-malarials, anti-cancers and antibiotics. Others are lifestyle products for slimming and boosting male virility and herbal medicines.
The National Drug Authority (NDA) last week warned health care workers and members of public about falsified chloroquine.
“National Drug Authority received an alert from WHO (World Health Organisation) that 9 different falsified Chloroquine products have been reported in 3 countries of Africa – Cameroon, DR Congo, and Niger,” the NDA alert reads in part.
According to NDA, the said products were confirmed to be falsified because the identity, composition and source were deliberately misrepresented.
Loophole
The executive director of the Uganda National Health Consumers Organisation (Unhco), Ms Robinah Kaitiritimba, in an interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, said the NDA surveillance and enforcement is inadequate to effectively tackle the problem of falsified and counterfeit medicines.
She said the poor control and inspection, starting from border points to consumer markets for falsified and counterfeit medicine, is complicating the fight against the vice.
Ms Kaitiritimba said some drugs in the drug shops and pharmacies have not been tested by NDA.
“If you go to market, you will find many counterfeit medical products. It is worse with anti-malarials and yet we already have the issue of drug resistance,” she said.
According to Ms Kaitiritimba, cargo trucks are the biggest means that the falsified and counterfeit medical products are ferried into consumer market.
She also blamed poor regulation of drug shops and pharmacies as contributing to the influx of counterfeit medicine.
However, Mr Fredrick Ssekyana, the NDA spokesperson, said the agency has been fighting hard to protect the population from fake medicines.
“We also do post market surveillance of all drug outlets (pharmacies and drug shops). We also conduct routine enforcement activities against illegal and licensed drug outlets,” he said.
A total of 4,387 drug outlets were surveilled, leading to closure of 1,526 and effecting 56 arrests in the first half of the current financial year, according to Mr Ssekyana.
“In the first half of Financial Year 2019/202, about 11,331 import consignments of medicines and devices through the designated ports of entry (including at Busia, Malaba, Nakawa and Entebbe) were inspected for conformance to stipulated quality requirements,” he said.
Impact on Africa
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that every year some 100,000 people across Africa die from taking “falsified or substandard” medication.
Up to 42 per cent of fake medicines seized worldwide are from Africa.
