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NAIROBI: The war against counterfeit or substandard medical drugs in the country has received a big boost after the Pharmacy and Poisons Board acquired new machines for rapid on-the-spot testing of medicines in the field.
This comes as the government is battling to control the increasing sale of substandard or counterfeit medicines in the country by unscrupulous traders thereby placing the lives and health of many Kenyans in peril.
The Board has now acquired 11 specialised Mini-Labs that can quickly test the ingredients of medicines on the spot in the field to confirm if they are genuine or substandard.
The Board’s Registrar Dr Kipkerich Koskei said the new technology will enhance the surveillance of substandard and counterfeit medicines including those sold in Pharmacies as well as those imported into the country.
“After screening drugs in the field with the new equipment, any suspicious product is then taken for confirmatory testing at our main laboratories and other approved laboratories. It is now much easier to combat those selling substandard drugs,” he said.
Substandard medicines have been linked to deaths, illnesses as well as increasing resistance to treatments that are increasingly being noted among Kenyans.
The drugs that are affected most by counterfeiting or substandard production are those for malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS
Dr Koskei said that the mini labs verify claims contained in the label on drugs including drug identity and content, and detects substandard medicines containing the wrong, much too high, low or zero levels of active ingredients.
He indicated that the Mini Labs have also been sent to all designated points of entry for medical drugs in the country and will significantly.
The eleven (11) gazetted Ports of Entry for medical drugs in Kenya are Kilindini Port, Lunga Lunga, Namanga, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ICD Embakasi, ICD Pepe Athi River, EMS City Square, Isebania, Busia, Malaba and Eldoret International Airport.
“Plans are underway to designate eight more POEs namely: Taveta, Moyale, Mandera, Kisumu Airport, Lokichogio, Liboi, Nadapal, Moi International Airport Mombasa and General Post Office Mombasa,” he added.
The portable Mini-Labs worth Sh6.1 million each were acquired with the assistance of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Dr Koskei called on Kenyans to report any suspicious drugs to the board through hotlines set up by the board to help in efforts to combat substandard medicines in the country.
Counterfeit medicines pose a major risk to public health, especially to patients with life-threatening conditions. Patients are driven to the counterfeits by the high cost of legitimate medicines.
Counterfeit medicines are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity or source: their quality is unpredictable as they may contain the wrong amount of active ingredients, wrong ingredients or no active ingredients.
The Kenyan Association of Pharmaceutical Industry estimates that counterfeit pharmaceutical products account for approximately Sh13 billion annually in sales in the country.
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