PHOTO: Amodiaquine Hydrochloride 200mg, some of the medicine confiscated
By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue82@gmail.com
VOINJAMA, Liberia- As the Pharmacy Board of Liberia at the Ministry of Health begins holding a five days stakeholder engagements with owners of medicine stores and pharmacies across Lofa County, it has confiscated a consignment of illegal/contraband medicines.
According to Pharmacist Doctor Men-mon P.Z Du-nah, General Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Pharmacy Board of Liberia, are intended to disseminate revised policies on the establishment and operations of pharmaceutical businesses, to conduct meetings with the joint security at major border port of entries to discuss the guidelines of handling and distribution of essential medicines.
Stakeholders at one of the engagement meetings
The engagements are also intended to enforce regulations on the operation of pharmaceutical outlets with specific focus on Retail Pharmacy and medicine stores which include illegal opening of medicine stores, operating with expired permits, those with expired medicines, counterfeit or falsified medicine and unauthorized persons serving as dispensers.
Dr. Du-nah said that the engagements will also enable them to understand issues confronting those within the sector from across the county and the possible establishment of the institution’s office in Voinjama which is the county’s capital.
While in Salayea and Zorzor districts, his team ordered the closure of seven medicine stores for operating without permit or operating on expired drugs which are all illegal and that they were alone to confiscate some expired and counterfeit drugs as well.
He told the gathering of over one hundred owners of medicine stores and pharmacies at the Lofa County Health Team recently, that the pharmacy Board of Liberia is committed to ensuring that medicine stores across the country are up to date.
In continuation of the team’s vigorous engagements in Lofa, his team has removed a substantial quality of the Amodiaquine Hydrochloride 200mg from medicines stores across the County, Dr. Du-nah said.
“The sale of Amodiaquine is a violation of the Ministry of Health treatment protocol for uncomplicated malaria,” Dr. Du-nah further to journalists.
He said that the ministry of health in compliance with the World Health Organization, mandated the use of combination therapy for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Liberia but that some unscrupulous business people are in the habit of illegally smuggling such treatment in Liberia which he said can be used for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria.
The illegal and counter band medication according to him were found in some of the medicine stores in Voinjama and Foya districts during the one week stakeholder engagements and inspections by the Liberia Pharmacy Board in Lofa from June 13,2022 to June 18, 2022
“These counter band medications along with other expired medicines also confiscated during our activities will be turn over to the Liberia Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority the (LMHRA) for incineration” Dr. Du-nah noted.
According to him, this is not the first time for the Pharmacy Board to confiscate Amodiaquine in Liberia. This medication he said has equally been arrested in other counties including Montserrado, Bong, Nimba, Margibi and the South Eastern Counties.
“The danger of using this monotherapy (Amodiaquine) for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria is that the medication is not effective for the cure of malaria, as a stand along drug, and therefore, the patient is likely to build resistance to malaria illness, and such patient also stands the risk of progressing to the state of severe or complicated malaria, which puts the patient life as risk” the Executive Officer of the Pharmacy Board of Liberia indicated.
He said his team is now moving to the western cluster of the country to include: Bomi, Cape Mount and Gbarpolu Counties respectively for similar stakeholder engagements and inspections.
Pharmacy Board’s history and powers
The Liberia Pharmacy Board was established by an Act in 1966-67 (Public Health Law of Liberia, Ch. 67), as a specialized body of the Liberia health sector serving as the directing and coordinating Authority for the practice of pharmacy in Liberia.
The Board sets standards and policies in the pharmaceutical sector (especially the retail pharmaceutical sector); which ensures that the personnel in the sector are trained, qualified and registered, that the pharmaceutical entities/premises in the sector are of good standard and registered, that the general populace receives the best pharmaceutical care, etc.
The Liberia Pharmacy Board has the following functions: Administers examinations for the qualification of graduate Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians/Dispensers who have completed the requirements for licensure, registers and maintains the register of all Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians/Dispensers practicing in Liberia, supervises and controls the ethical behavior of Practicing Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians / Dispensers in Liberia, ensures the continuing professional development (CPD) of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians/Dispensers in Liberia, sets standards and defines requirements for establishing and operating retail pharmaceutical outlets throughout the country and inspects retail pharmaceutical outlets for annual registration, documentations, condition of premises and qualifications of Pharmacy Technicians/Dispensers in stores throughout the country.
Other functions include Inspect dispensaries, provide in-services training for dispensers charged with the handling of pharmaceutical products/equipment, issues permits to retail entities annually, evaluates curricula and issues annual permits to pharmaceutical training institutions and advises the Minister of Health on the Practice of Pharmacy in the Country.