Panellists call for national action against counterfeit medicines

The health experts, including the Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey; a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, and the Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Professor David Ofori-Adjei, were speaking in Accra at the opening of a two-day workshop on “Counterfeit medicines problems in Ghana”.

It was organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), in collaboration with the Royal Society and Pfizer Incorporated, and attended by Fellows of the Academy and key stakeholders connected with pharmaceutical industry.

Globally, the indulgence in SSFFC medicines has assumed alarming proportions in view of the financial boom in their trade, with a current estimated annual value of $75 billion.

Indeed, all kinds of medicines – from those for the treatment of life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, malaria and tuberculosis to inexpensive generic versions of painkillers - have been counterfeited.

According to some health experts, trade in SSFFC medicines is fast overtaking that of narcotic drugs, given the low risk and high income that the former offers comparatively.

The proliferation of SSFFC medicines has been a major source of concern to the international community, and it was within that scope of concern that the World Health Assembly (WHA), at its meeting in May 2012, adopted Resolution WHA 65.19, challenging all governments to put in place mechanisms to deal with that menace.

In Ghana, statistics on the proliferation of SSFFC medicines are quite alarming, and confronted with that enormous challenge, the Minister of Health, Ms Ayittey, is urging the nation to marshal all forces “to tackle this menace decisively”.

“Ghana cannot and will not be a place for counterfeit medicines and anyone found involved in this trade will face the full rigours of the law regardless of their status or position in society,” she said in a speech read on her behalf by the Chief Pharmacist, Mrs Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt.

Ms Ayittey called for a concerted effort among the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the international police (Interpol), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry “to dislodge the criminal networks raking in billions of dollars from this cynical trade”.

“This fight is everyone’s fight and we must wage this battle together till victory is won!” she added.

Delivering the keynote address, Professor Addae-Mensah gave an overview of the SSFFC medicines situation in Ghana and some African countries.

He made reference to many studies conducted in Ghana and other African countries to underline his submission that SSFFC medicines had assumed alarming proportions in those countries.

Professor Addae-Mensah said the studies indicated in some instances that the labels and holograms of medicines were faked, while in other instances, pollen grains, charcoal particles and nymphs of insects were found in some anti-malarial drugs.

He said some of the studies also showed alarming failure rate in the pharmaceutical content and dissolution of medicines, adding, “If dissolution is poor but the content is right, you are wasting your time”.

He stressed the need to strengthen the capacity of medical training institutions in respect of equipment to enable them test medicines, adding that they must be licensed to test medicines in order to complement the efforts of the FDA.

For his part, Professor Ofori-Adjei said people must be wary of organisations that donated medicines because some of the medicines could be expired and far from being good gestures.

He said it was important to improve on the procurement processes, while calling for a national response to the menace of SSFFC medicines.

The President of the GAAS, Professor Francis Allotey, said the academy would continue to organise more of such programmes on a wide-range of issues affecting the nation.

The Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Ghana, Professor Alexander Nyarko, who chaired the ceremony, said indulgence in SSFFC medicines was an organised crime and the perpetrators must be severely punished.

Story by Kofi Yeboah

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