Moves by Ghana to improve access to medicines

Moves by Ghana to improve access to medicines
November 12, 2009
He said the institution should operate alongside national regulators to achieve universal access to medicines and strengthen domestic pharmaceutical industries.

It was organised by Ghana Health Service (GHS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and TRADECOM Facility for African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries, under the European Union.

Dr Addo said most local pharmaceutical industries were collapsing due to the lack of competition and the preferences of foreign pharmaceutical products.

Dr Addo stressed the need for government to ensure full incorporation of all Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Safeguards in national legislations to promote domestic pharmaceutical industries.

Dr Addo said Ghana's own laws and policies concerning intellectual property, competition, trade and drug regulation, as well as other relevant international and regional agreements and initiatives had gaps that hindered major progress of local industries.

Dr Addo noted that these constraints often led to high cost of doing business with very low returns but the local pharmaceutical industry could contribute to public health in the wider ECOWAS region as long as the removal of barriers to trade could be accelerated and there was the need for wider scientific research for WHO pre-qualification.

He commended the management of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) for ensuring a well-functioning pharmaceutical regulatory system which had shown evidence of commitment by local manufacturers to achieve international Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.

"The integrity of the supply chain is also seriously jeopardised by the existence of illegal counterfeit drugs which are mostly imported illegally into the country," he said.

He said some recommendations had been made to enhance access to medicines and these included: ensuring that regulatory approval of medicines were treated as purely scientific matters with patent status having no influence on the decision on whether or not to approve a generic drug.

GNA