MANUFACTURERS OF fake drugs who thought their nefarious activities would continue undetected would soon be laughing at the wrong side of their mouths.

This is because stringent measures are being adopted by relevant stakeholders in both the public and the private sectors to clamp-down on the activities of unscrupulous individuals whose actions have been the direct result of the emergence of counterfeit drugs on the Ghanaian market.

Recent reports indicate that counterfeit drugs have flooded the market, a development described by concerned stakeholders as very unfortunate and unacceptable.

Most of these drugs, according to the reports, are being sold at cheaper prices at the expense of genuine ones.

Grave concerns have since been expressed by stakeholders at the unfortunate situation.

Mpedigree Network, a Stakeholder Forum, backing the fight against counterfeiting of drugs is one of such stakeholders.

It has expressed its preparedness to partner with concerned organisations and other existing regulatory bodies to help withdraw all fake and unwholesome pharmaceutical products from the market.

Mr. Bright Simons, a Consultant working in partnership with Mpedigree told HEALTH MATTERS that an intensive exercise to this effect had begun in earnest, where more than 2000 drug buyers in Accra and Kumasi have so far been sampled.

The exercise, which was carried out at Drug Lane and Kumasi Central in Accra and Kumasi respectively, is being undertaken by the Ghana Counterfeit Situation Attitudinal Survey (GHACSAS) comprising accredited officers from different fields of study.

It is being sponsored by various international health-related organisations including the African Development Corporation (ADC) in Boston; Thayer School of Engineering in U.S-based Dartmouth University, Syncrytel and PATH - international health advocacy organisations in the United States of America.

The exercise, he explained, is designed to measure prevailing attitudes amongst pharmaceutical consumers towards the presence of counterfeit medications on the open market through the use of semi-structured questionnaires.

He said this was being done in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Food and Drugs Board (FDB), the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana among other health-related interested groups.

Mr. Simons said the management of EFPAC Pharmaceuticals Limited has in the interim, released one of its products, EFPAC Junior, pain relief syrup for children, to be used for the exercise.

Explaining further, he said the exercise had been carefully designed in such a way that a fake EFPAC Junior product on the market could easily be detected and withdrawn.

All four existing telecommunication networks: Onetouch, Tigo, MTN and Kasapa have expressed interest in using their technologies to help win the fight against fake pharmaceutical products.

Mr Simons said the exercise was, among other things, aimed at establishing the extent of prior awareness amongst pharmaceutical buyers about the risk of counterfeit products on the open market, and developing a framework for differential socio-behavioural responses to the risk of counterfeit medication in the pharmaceutical supply chain.