Drugs on the black market are a nightmare for regulators

On April 5 2023, a gentleman called me saying that he had lost his wife to a “Chinese pill” and said he was willing to come out to add his voice to National Drug Authority’s (NDA) so that several others don’t fall victim.

He sent me screenshots of the packages of the pill and offered to be interviewed, it turns out that he is the husband of the lady that collapsed at the Naguru Police Headquarters!

On October 14, 2022, NDA issued a public notice about the illegal distribution, sale and use of an unauthorized “Chinese” contraceptive pill. NDA, warned the public against using the unauthorized pill which was reportedly being sold on the black market with packaging, labelling and patient information leaflet all in the Chinese language except for the claimed ingredients –Levonorgestrel and Quinestrol.

What is known is that Levonorgestrel and Quinestrol are hormones in some birth control pills but several tests done show that this particular pill contains higher than the recommended dosage of these hormones.

In 2012, Kenya’s drug regulator laboratory tested a similar pill that was claimed to be herbal-based but the results indicated that it contained as much as 3000 mcg of estradiol, 100 times more than the approved daily pill. The pill was banned in Kenya, even though recent media reports there show that the pill is being sold secretly in some parts of the country. A similar pill was also banned in Zambia in 2016 but continued to be sold on black market! As we might all be aware, NDA is mandated to regulate drugs that are sold on the Ugandan market. As drug regulators, we are tasked to oversee the entire supply-chain and outlets where drugs are sold. This gives assurance that in case the public gets a problem from use of a particular drug, we can be able to trace it. Selling and buying drugs on and from black market is not only illegal, but also creates leakages in the drug supply chain and exposes the public to impure drugs.

While NDA strives to undertake several regulatory actions including post-market surveillance and enforcement operations, the public is called upon to shun products on the black market. It is imported to note that all authorized drugs must be labeled in English as per the National Drug laws. Our post-market surveillance and enforcement units continue to be on full alert to undertake regulatory actions against all culprits.

NDA has authorized legitimate family planning pills whose details can also be accessed from the drug register that is available on our website.   We encourage the public to only seek quality family planning services from qualified health professionals in registered health facilities and drug outlets that are duly licensed to avoid these life-threatening risks. If anything goes wrong, these can be held accountable as by the laws of Uganda.

If you are using any contraceptive and you get any unusual reactions, please report immediately to NDA through our several drug reporting systems we have put in place.

NDA is working hand-in-hand with the Uganda Police, Uganda Revenue Authority and regional partners in our drug regulatory harmonization arrangement to tighten our supply chain to ensure that we eliminate these dangerous products off the market and tightened border surveillance especially of countries without strong regulatory systems.

As the NDA continues to strengthen controls over the drug supply chain and fight such unauthorised products, we ask the public to be more vigilant and take full responsibility of their health by ensuring that they source medication from legal channels.

Mr Abiaz Rwamwiri is the  public relations manager, National Drug Authority.

 [email protected]