FDB warns public on counterfeit drugs

THE Food and Drugs Board (FDB) has identified some counterfeit and substandard anti-malarial drugs on the market and advised the public to be cautious when buying such drugs.
They include quinine sulphate, artesunate tablets and metakelfin tablets.
Additionally, some substandard chloroquine injections, which have not been registered by the FDB, were also found on the market despite the fact that the use of chloroquine as anti-malarial has been discontinued in Ghana since January, 2005.
In its quest to safeguard the health of the consuming public, the FDB conducted periodic market surveillance on selected samples of medicinal products on the Ghanaian market for quality monitoring.
The counterfeit drugs were identified when samples of anti-malarial drugs were picked from both public and private hospitals, retail pharmacies, licensed chemical shops and wholesale facilities across the country by officers in respective zonal offices of the FDB to determine their quality status.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Communications Manager of the FDB, Mr James Y. Lartey, said the public needed to be on the look out for such unsafe drugs since many of them found their way to the Ghanaian market through unapproved routes where custom officers could not arrest them.
He explained that laboratory analyses conducted by the FDB, with the support of United States Pharmacopoeia and USAID, revealed that samples of the anti-malarial medicines tested were either counterfeits or substandard, thereby compromising their quality, safety and efficacy.
The statement, however, indicated that the FDB had directed its zonal offices to ensure the immediate removal of those counterfeit products from the retail shops involved and also from circulation.
Besides the counterfeit drugs, the FDB also identified a number of substandard medicines including Artilum-140 tablets with batch number RT923, Renovate tablets with batch number MH932, Malmed tablets M080218, Malmed tablets with batch number M090034, Co-Artesun tablets FS090301, Acumal Junior Powder RA8001, all of which were imported.
Other substandard drugs were Trafan tablets with batch numbers 0108J, 03, 26,24,02 which were all locally manufactured.
Meanwhile, the FDB has indicated it is taking the necessary regulatory actions against the manufacturers/importers of these medicines.