Task force on sub-standard medical products inaugurated

An inter-agency task force to monitor, seize and share information on substandard, spurious and counterfeit medical products has been inaugurated in Accra.

The task force, which has the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) as the lead agency, will also report falsified medical products to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other regulators.

The task force, with representatives each from the Pharmacy Council, the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), the  Ministry of Health, the Economic and Organised Crime Unit (EOCO) and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), will also conduct an overview of product enforcement and quality monitoring activities undertaken by the FDA in the past six months.

Representatives from the Judicial Service, the Attorney General's Department, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA)  and the Police Service are also part of the task force.

SSFFC Medical Products

Speaking at the inauguration, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the FDA, Mr Hudu Mogtari, indicated that substandard, spurious, falsely labelled and counterfeit (SSFFC) products in the health commodity chain were increasingly becoming a global security threat.

Such products, he stated, apart from being wrongly labelled, also more often contained wrong ingredients that had no active pharmaceutical composition.

"The application of SSFFC medical products can result in wrong and inaccurate diagnosis and therapeutic failure which can lead to incapacitation," Mr Mogtari pointed out.

He indicated that while eliminating counterfeit products could be a major challenge, an inter-agency co-operation was key.

Herbal Preparations

Mr Mogtari stated that the FDA, through its post-market surveillance activities, had detected that herbal preparations were adulterated with antibiotics, steroids, vitamins and counterfeit anthelmintic aphrodisiacs.

According to him, a recent product quality monitoring conducted by the FDA in collaboration with the United States Pharmacopeia revealed the presence of substandard unterotonics in most hospitals and clinics throughout the country.

The phenomenon of counterfeit and falsified medicines, Mr Mogtari said, were primarily difficult to deal with owing to the free trade agreement and policies across Africa, permitting the free movement of goods and people.

Health Scams

The Head of Drug Enforcement at the FDA, Mr Thomas Amedzro, expressed worry at the promotion and sale of food supplements and devices, which had been described as being able to diagnose, prevent or cure diseases.