Don't Sell Counterfeit, Expired Medicine - Ashitey

The Deputy Minister for Health, Dr Mrs Gladys Ashitey, yesterday called on health professionals and licensed medicine retailers not to play on the ignorance of clients and sell counterfeit and expired drugs to them.
    
She said they should not compromise the health of Ghanaians by dealing in unprofessional acts that can undermine the health of their clients.
    
Speaking at a stakeholder forum organised by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) on Global Partnership for Safe Medicines in Accra, she noted that safe medicines should not be a privilege but a necessity for all Ghanaians.
    
The forum which coincided with the completion of the final report of the July National Dialogue on Counterfeit Drugs brought together a delegation led by Mr Scott LaGanga from Partnership for Safe Medicines in the USA and their Ghanaian counterparts.
    
Deliberations centred on the need to increase attempts to globalise the fight against fake medicines, the importance of interagency co-operation in the development of effective legal and regulatory bodies; the need to modernise on-going efforts to fight the fake product menace and the harmonisation of existing efforts at the implementation level through the formation of a National Anti-counterfeit Taskforce.
    
According to the FDB, completion of the final report of the dialogue on counterfeit product marked an important first step in the wholesale revamping of the on-going exercise of combating the menace in Ghana and the sub-region. He, however, conceded that the fight can not succeed in a stand alone fashion.
    
The Rev Jonathan Martey, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Drugs FDB, said there is the need for all to play the watchdog role and educate each other to help society question their pharmacists and licensed chemical retailers on the quality and efficacy of  the drugs sold to them. 'When people begin to ask questions then we are going somewhere,' he said.
    
The Rev Martey called on the media to play their role effectively to help in the fight against counterfeit products.
    
Mr LaGanga said statistics from WHO indicates that 30 per cent of drugs on the market are counterfeit and everybody in the world is at risk and called for a global effort to fight the menace.