E-DRUG: Strategy to empower consumers in fighting counterfeit medicines
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Please find below a press release calling Civil society to join forces in
fighting counterfeiting in Ghana.
We look forward to all to assist in this fight.
Reported by
Health Access Network and mPedigree
http://www.modernghana.com/news/244211/1/ghanaian-civil-society-wakes-up-to-threat-of-fake-.html
*RELEASE*
GHANAIAN CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVISTS JOIN FORCES AGAINST FAKE & COUNTERFEIT
DRUGS*
16 October 2009
Health Access Network and mPedigree is pleased to announce a new partnership
to highlight consumer and patient concerns in the ongoing efforts to improve
upon the quality of medicines sold in Ghana. The goal is to ensure that a
patient-centred regulatory and policymaking approach becomes the dominant
way of addressing access and quality issues in Ghana as far as medicines and
healthcare are concerned.
The mass withdrawal of widely-prescribed antimalarial, coartem, from several
pharmacies and licensed chemical shops in Kumasi and elsewhere a few months
ago is the latest in a disturbing succession of similar incidents which
suggests that Ghana cannot remain complacent about the health and safety of
its citizens.
This is especially so in the context of statistics from several reputable
bodies which put the counterfeit prevalence rate between 15% and 25% of all
medicines sold in sub-Saharan Africa.
These counterfeit incidents come on the back of several studies which have
found frightening levels of substandard medication in the national drug
supply chain even in Ghana. While it is true that not all substandard
medicines come from counterfeit sources, and that poor handling of
legitimate medicines can corrupt them, substandard medicines are just as
dangerous to consumers and patients. As recently as 2008, Ofori Kwakye,
Asantewaa and Gaye, Researchers at KNUST, found out that 82% of sampled
artesunate sold in pharmacies in Kumasi were substandard according to
European guidelines.
This situation is intolerable for patients and consumers of health products;
and should be unacceptable to regulators, policymakers, and concerned civil
society actors. It threatens the growth of pharmaceutical industry and
commerce in this country, undercutting any possibility of Ghana attaining
security in the supply of quality medicines both through trade and local
production. The proliferation of counterfeit medicines must clearly be
stopped.
The prevalence of fake and counterfeit medicines occurs in the form of black
marketing, mislabeling, and fraudulent packaging, in some instances. But it
is increasingly also being observed in incidents of duplication and
imitation, contents tampering, unlicensed repackaging, unauthorized parallel
trading, or the sale of dummies masquerading as drugs. In all these
situations, the consequences are largely the same and fatal to Ghana’s
public health system. We note the growing difficulties in the national
management of the malaria burden due to the growing inefficacy of some
first-line treatments, a trend that is significantly attributable to the
expanding presence of counterfeit anti-malarial medicines on the market.
It is important that stakeholders strive to contribute to the effort of
Ghana’s Ministry of Health, especially the Food & Drugs Board, to contain
the crisis of counterfeit medicines, and by so doing to promote the healthy
business of pharmaceutical trade and production in Ghana. Health Access
Network and the mPedigree Network are delighted to announce in this light
that their new partnership will serve to bridge the gap between public and
private initiatives in this direction.
Health Access Network and mPedigree Network will vigorously champion the
coordination of various ongoing anti-counterfeiting efforts in order to
ensure a harmonized approach towards dealing with the problem at all levels
of the health ecosystem. They shall support the statutory authorities in
their mandate to police existing standards, while contributing to the
equally critical task of formulating emerging standards that are responsive
to new trends in pharmaceutical quality assurance. They shall do this by
bringing patient rights and consumer rights perspectives into the heart of
the regulatory and policymaking process.
Health Access Network is a network of health professionals and consumer
health advocates committed to using innovative ways through collaboration
with wide range of stakeholders including government, non government and
civil society organisations to promote access to essential medicines for the
people of Ghana.
MPedigree, a partner of IMANI Center for Policy & Education, combines
insights into technology, policy matters, and social enterprise to formulate
its unique approach to fighting counterfeiting. This is a model based on the
principle that industry and regulatory authority should interface
continuously rather than on a per-transaction basis, and that the consumer
should, as far as possible, be a participant in this process, and not an
incidental beneficiary. In 2008, the Network piloted a mobile phone based
mechanism that enables consumers and manufacturers to interact at the point
of product purchase, thus helping stem counterfeiting.
Charles Allotey, Executive Director of Health Access Network said, “Having
always supported the emergence of a strong and responsive quality framework
for pharmaceuticals in Ghana, we feel the time has now come to take the
advocacy effort around these and related issues to the next level. While we
acknowledge the good work being done by regulators and policymakers, we feel
more can be done, particularly by ensuring that patients' voices and needs
are better heard and appreciated”.
Bright Simons, Coordinator of the mPedigree Network, advocated for the
ramping up of the initiative in order to demonstrate early results for
stakeholders and the general consuming public: “the task ahead is enormous,
and can only be sustained through the careful exploration of all kinds of
partnerships amongst stakeholders involved in varied efforts at different
levels. No one stakeholder can manage all the complexities of the access and
quality situation in healthcare delivery in Ghana”.
For more information, contact:
Health Access Network – han.ghana@gmail.com, info@hanghana.org
MPedigree Network – Ampem Dankwah: info@mPedigree.Net
Charles K. Allotey
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
HEALTH ACCESS NETWORK
P. O. BOX 13025
ACCRA
Email: han.ghana@gmail.com
Tel. +233 244 280284
Fax: +233 21 514220
Charles Allotey <kallotey@gmail.com>