Pharmacists push for tight surveillance to curb counterfeit medicine in Kenya

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers have been urged to support efforts to free Kenya from counterfeit drugs.

Pharmacists say continued proliferation of counterfeits could compromise the country’s medicine manufacturing industry that feeds the local and export markets. Speaking during the annual Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) scientific conference at a Mombasa hotel on Thursday, officials of the society called on the State to build the capacity of regulatory agencies in the medical sector.

“The import and distribution industry is big and almost all major international brands have a presence in the country. The retail sector is widespread in the country and access to medicine in the private sector is assured. This is why the need for better regulation can never be gainsaid,” PSK President Paul Mwaniki (pictured) said. “The quality of medicines cannot be compromised and we cannot win this war unless all stakeholders combine their efforts to weed out counterfeits and quacks.”

The PSK boss called on the State to boost the capacity of Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the National Quality Control Laboratory in terms of human resource, technology and equipment to guarantee adequate surveillance, detection and testing of drugs. “The pharmacists who dispense at the retail end relies on the integrity of the supply chain and the regulator to have made the necessary measures to ensure that the medicine on the shelves are safe and efficacious,” he noted.

The conference brought together more than 1,000 pharmacists from across the country. The participants poked holes in the proposed Health Bill, saying it discriminates pharmacists and gives medical doctors an upper hand in decision making.

“Positions of the Director General of Health and County Director of Health and the CEO of the Health Professionals Oversight Authority must be open to all health professionals with a degree in any human health field and who are registered by a regulatory board under the ministry, not medical doctors only,” Mwaniki said.