FDA gets tough - engages CID to enforce laws
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has taken the enforcement of laws on food and drugs to another dimension by involving the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
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The move is to help the authority to deal with media organisations that flout schedule five of the Public Health Act 2012, Act 851, which lists diseases that cannot be advertised.
Per the Act, products for curing diseases such as hypertension, fibroid, AIDS, cancer, reproductive and heart related diseases, blindness and diabetes, among others, are all not to be advertised under the law.
The Head of Communications at the FDA, Mr James Lartey, said the authority’s major challenge in enforcing laws had to do with advertisement, especially by radio and television stations in the country.
“It is a major challenge we have been trying to deal with for a long time,” he said and added: “They continue to advertise products that are not registered and even when they are registered, approval has not been given.”
He noted: “I am not saying all the adverts, some are good. That is why the police have come in so at least there will be scapegoats and it will deter others to stop.”
He said circulars had been sent to the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Advertisers Association of Ghana (AAG) and they were expected to bring the issue to the attention of their members.
The facts
International trade accounts for more than half of counterfeiting and piracy, of which domestic production and consumption account for between US$140 billion and US$215 billion.
Counterfeiting ranges from pharmaceuticals, electronic, detergents, food and beverages, as well as ICT products and accessories. This has impacted negatively on businesses and global trade through lost revenue, lower profit margins and damage to hard-earned reputations, which erodes consumer confidence in brands.
In Ghana, many radio stations have taken advantage of the inability of the FDA to implement the laws on drug advertising.
Subsequently, the radio and television stations advertise anything brought to them and in their presentations say things that the drugs they sell don’t do.
This is creating a lot of health problems for unsuspecting people who in their quest to seek medical help end up buying what rather aggravates their health problems.
Although not quantified, this has a direct impact on productivity because those who are unable to work become unproductive and become a burden on the society.
Impact on health
Ghana has not been spared in the complex counterfeit drug trade which poses a threat to the people and increases the health budget.
The WHO links about 100,000 deaths annually in Africa to counterfeit drug trade.
Mr Lartey said although those diseases were manageable, most people were tempted to abandon their medication due to the advertisements.
“When you check from Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye teaching hospitals and in some cases the 37 Military Hospital, the medical staff will tell you that they have had a lot of cases where people have gone off their medication because of adverts and it has compounded their illness, and most of them have had to do with herbal adverts. Some people even die,” he said.
Consumer consciousness
Generally, Mr Lartey said the public had been cooperative by offering information to the FDA, following the intensive public education the authority had done and urged consumers to do more.
“We want to assure Ghanaians that the FDA is doing all in its power to ensure public health and safety when it comes to the products we regulate. But they must support us by buying from the right place and also from shops where the products are well stored,” he said. —GB
