...Pharmacist Preparations Failed Analysis, Says Food & Drugs Board

A quality assessment of some drugs on the Ghanaian market by the Food and Drugs Board early this year showed that most of the products were of poor quality, reports the September edition of the Ghana Pharmaceutical Journal.

The products involved, which are prepared by pharmacies, are meant to be used immediately (extemporaneous preparations) included Trisilicate, Kaolin and Gentian violet. Others were Ferric Ammonium citrate, Senna Co and Potassium citrate.

"The results indicated that out of 328 samples analyzed, 89.6% failed analysis", the journal said.

What it means is that diseases could not be healed or they could be aggravated, F. Awuku-Kwatia, the Registrar of the Pharmacy Council told Public Agenda of the implications of the results of the assessment done by the FDB.

Awuku-Kwatia explained that the extemporaneous drugs become substandard because they stay on the shelves of pharmacies for far to long. They therefore loose their strength. But these drugs are not meant for the shelves; they are prepared on demand and are to be used immediately, he explained.

He revealed that some times the people who prepare these extemporaneous drugs put them in bottles and give them labels with two or three years expiry term.

Though not certain about the people involved in this unethical and illegal conduct, Awuku-Kwatia said that some pharmacists as well as dispensing technicians could be guilty of it. In rural areas where drugs last for longer periods on the shelves, the registrar said that the situation could be more serious. More worrisome though is the fact that most of the drugs analyzed are used to treat common medical conditions. Trisilicate is used for mild stomach upsets, Ferric Ammonium Citrate serves as blood tonic for pregnant women while gentian violet is a common drug for sores.

Awuku-Kwatia said that some of these problems could be checked if the regulation that all pharmacies should have a superintendent pharmacist is complied with. He said the Pharmacy Council is clamping down on pharmacies which do not have any superintendent pharmacists. The public could also help if they insist on seeing the superintendent pharmacists any time they go to buy drugs.

It is not clear whether all the substandard drugs have been removed from the market but the Chief Executive Officer of the FDB,. T.C. Corquaye told Public Agenda that the board has taken action to arrest the situation.

According to him, the Board is working in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical society to avoid the preparation and sale of substandard preparations. "The Board is taken regulatory action to ensure that the preparations are made in the pharmacies and given to the patients immediately', Corquaye said.

Corquaye, though was tight-lipped about the sanctions applied against the pharmacies which have fallen foul of the law but said the matter was handled at the business meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society recently.

The problem of substandard drugs seems to be more widespread than acknowledged It appears to nvolve more drugs than extemporaneous preparations. Research by some experts from the Faculty of Pharmacy of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology indicated that many imported and locally manufactured drugs are of a poor quality. Their research which was reported in the Pharmaceutical Journal said that an average of about 18.95% of drugs in the Kumasi metropolis were substandard. Evidence of decomposition of some of the imported drugs was obtained, the research said. The imported drugs analysed were aspirin, paracetamol and chloroquine.

Some of the imported products, according to the research was also not labelled properly. It called on the local drug regulating authorities to monitor more seriously imported products that find their way onto the market. "It may also be important for pharmacists to routinely check with regulatory agencies to find out if products they purchase are registered with them, " the report added.