DKT International, a social marketing non-profit organisation, has been accused of using unregistered abortion drugs – Misoprostol and Mifepristone – to terminate pregnancies at their facilities.
According to a report from Joy News, the drugs which are distributed by DKT International have the potential to cause severe medical complications such as bleeding in women.
The investigations, carried out by the local TV station, showed that thousands of the unregistered drugs were part of a shipment of about 90,000 packets brought into the country by DKT International with the assistance of pharmaceutical sales persons from Nigeria and Switzerland.
Providing evidence, the report cited a waybill dated July 19, 2016 which revealed that the DKT Family Planning Clinic used 500 packets of Mifepristone and 2,000 pieces of Misoprostol.
Another document showed that on August 10, 2016, the clinic used 500 packets of packets of Misoprostol and another 500 packets of Misoprostol.
The investigative piece further revealed that the drugs were sold alongside Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) approved drugs imported into the country by the company.
“They (DKT) brought in the regulated drugs from the authorities through the main channels, but their illegal drugs that is where the chunk of the money is,” the former DKT International staff told Joy News.
DKT Responds
According to the report, DKT in response to the story stated that the company has never imported or commissioned the importation into Ghana of unregistered abortion drugs.
The company, however, explained that in January last year, DKT was approached by a Swiss national who proposed to supply DKT with a generic version of a pharmaceutical product which DKT was already legally distributing in Ghana, hinting that the contact made to the company was not unusual in the pharmaceutical industry.
DKT further stated that in accordance with usual practice, the company requested for samples of the product which it received from the Swiss national in March 2016, emphasizing that the company held on to the samples without distributing them while they awaited approval and successful registration with the Food and Drugs Authority ('Regulator') as has been DKT's practice in compliance with the regulatory requirement.
The company further explained that upon further checks with the FDA, it found that the product could not be registered in the form that they were received and, therefore, agreed with the Swiss national for the samples to be collected from DKT's premises and returned to the supplier.
Thus, on August 26, 2016, the Swiss national arrived in Ghana with two guests (both of whom were Nigerian nationals and with whom DKT had no dealings) to retrieve the samples as per the agreement.
The company, however, stated that within minutes of the arrival of the three men, the police arrived at the DKT's premises based on intelligence gathered, indicating that a Swiss national was on DKT's premises to supply large quantities of unregistered pharmaceutical products.
DKT disclosed that the police proceeded to search the premises of DKT and found the samples which were to be returned to the supplier through the Swiss national and confiscated them.
The company maintained that the product found on DKT's premises was NOT in “large quantities” and this can be verified from the authorities.
The company said the police took possession of the samples which are scheduled to be destroyed by the FDA with the full support of the DKT.
DKT further clarified that after an extensive investigation by the security agency, it was found that the information received by the police that the Swiss national had arrived at the DKT premises on August 26, 2016 with unregistered pharmaceuticals were unfounded and without basis.
However, given that the samples were found on the premises of DKT while they are yet to be registered, DKT was asked to pay an administrative charge which the company claimed it was the usual practice in such circumstances.
The company believed that the matter was satisfactorily dealt with by the authorities to the best of their knowledge.
DKT maintained it has set high standards for its operations and it is committed to maintaining its high standards.
“We continue to strive to improve the healthcare system and build the capacity of the private sector through education and the provision of safe, quality, affordable and accessible reproductive health products,” the company highlighted.
FDA Response
The FDA, however, said the quantities of the abortion drugs found at the premises of DKT make the claim they were just samples untenable.
The authority added that even if the drugs were samples, they should have been labelled, and once they were not labelled, they ought not to be administered.
By A DAILY GUIDE Reporter
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