Accra, Aug. 15, GNA- Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Thursday expressed concern about the influx of counterfeit and sub-standard drugs being dumped into Ghana by international criminal gangs, under the guise of free trade.

He therefore called on the citizenry to assist the various regulatory and law enforcement agencies to check the practice, which, he said has adverse effect on people in the rural areas who can least afford drugs.

Vice President Mahama expressed these views, when he opened a three-day conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, on the theme: "Ghana @ 50 Championing Pharmaceutical Excellence In Health care Delivery."

He charged the pharmacists to ensure the dynamic operation of the Ghana Essential Drug List by making effective recommendations about the selection and revision of the list and ensure cost effective brands of drugs capable managing common ills.

" I am informed that some locally manufactured drugs compare favourably with imported ones in terms of international standards of safety, efficiency and quality," he said. Vice President Mahama observed that local production only meets 30 per cent of the country's drug requirements and asked the pharmacists to seize the opportunity to invest in the manufacturing sector in order to reverse the situation.

He said such investments could lead to technology transfer, savings in foreign exchange, creation of jobs and increased incomes. Vice President Mahama said Government would provide incentives to all pharmacists who set up community pharmacies in the rural areas. Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Health said Ghana had lost the last 50 years to the invasion of foreign pharmaceutical expertise and tasked the pharmacists to use the theme for the conference as a stepping stone to reverse the trend. He asked pharmacists to assist herbalists to produce drugs in a scientific man ner, as being done in China to boost the local drugs portfolio. Mr. Frank Amoako Boateng, out-going President of the Society, called on the Government to package the drug manufacturing sector as a President's Special Initiative, since Ghana has a competitive advantage for its products over its counterparts in West Africa. He also called for a competitive but guaranteed market for local manufacturers.

Mr. Boateng expressed worry that the Value Added Tax exemptions offered to drug manufacturers to make them more competitive as captured in the 2007 Budget Statement is yet to be implemented. He spoke about the exodus of pharmacists, saying this year alone, nine out of the 150 of those inducted had left the country. Mr. Boateng stressed: "We have a total membership of 1941, 147 have officially indicated to us that they are living outside." Mrs. Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, Consultant Executive, Director, Rescue Foundation, Ghana, who spoke on the theme for the conference, asked health authorities not to relegate pharmacists to the dispensing of drugs.

She said pharmacists should be part of the planning and outlying of patient treatment to check misapplication of drugs such as overdose, which led to fatalities.