Accra, Nov. 13, GNA - Ms Gladys Ashitey, Deputy Minister of Health, has noted that the nature of medicines sales and distribution in the country contributed to high levels of inefficiency and potential fraud. Issues such as bribery, theft and diversion, the supply of counterfeit and sub-standard medicines are known challenges, she said at the launch of the Ghana Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) Initiative in Accra on Wednesday.

Ms Ashitey noted many countries, including Ghana, had only one-third of their population having access to quality medicine saying, "This contributes to avoidable deaths and medical complications." She noted that many of the problems of medicine sales and distribution were grounded in lack of effective communication and collaboration among distributors, prescribers, dispensers and consumers. Ms Ashitey said it was within this context that Ghana had offered itself as a pilot for the MeTA initiative.

The Deputy Health Minister described the initiative as the UK government's response to the challenges of medicines sales and distribution facing resource limited countries. She noted that preliminary studies sponsored by the UK Department for International Development found Ghana to be ideal as a pilot country because of her existing enabling legislative and policy environment, adding that as part of government's commitment to the principles of MeTA, the Ministry of Health's five-year programme of work already reflected the MeTA concepts. She said it was government's expectation that Ghana MeTA would engage in very useful win-win dialogue with multi-stake holders with the patient being the prime objective.

Dr Alex Dodoo, Co-Chair, MeTA Ghana, said good quality medicine was very crucial in the attainment of excellent health in any nation. He said making quality medicine easily affordable and reachable to all called for an alliance of all those who used medicines and whose lives were affected by medicines in any way. "This alliance should be willing to disclose and share information and use that information to improve upon the affordability and availability of medicines."

Dr Daniel Kertez, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), said in many developing countries, paying for medicines could account for 50 to 90 per cent of out of pocket health expenditures, adding that this could be catastrophic for poor families. He said WHO supported the MeTA objectives of using a wider stakeholder forum to the general public, which would help the public make informed decisions on medicines. "We congratulate Ghana for participating as a pilot country in MeTA and hope we would learn by doing, as we implement this pilot phase." Dr Paul Lartey of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana (PMAG), said Ghana remained far too dependent on the importation of essential drugs, noting that as an association of 35 active companies, PMAG produced approximately 30 per cent of drugs used in the country.

"We as an industry recognise the importance of growth and capacity building, so as to meet the needs of our country and beyond." Dr Lartey said PMAG welcomed MeTA as a means of demonstrating and showcasing the high quality of drugs manufactured in the Ghana. Medicines Transparency Alliance is a multi-stakeholder alliance working to improve access and affordability of medicines for the "one-third" of the world's population unable to access basic and essential medicines due to high cost or local unavailability. Countries currently participating in MeTA are Peru, Uganda, Zambia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines. 12 Nov. 08