Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) has sounded the alarm over the proliferation of falsified medicines in the country, with pharmacists and other retailers caught selling fake medicines risking revoking of licences.
In a stern warning on the sidelines of the MCAZ annual stakeholders forum, Director-General of the authority, Mr Richard Rukwata revealed that the authority has been investigating cases of falsified medicines, including antibiotics such as Cloxacillin capsules, which are used to treat infections.
“One of the challenges we have, and I think every Zimbabwean can attest to this, we have people selling medicines in street corners, we have people selling medicines in undesignated places, sometimes even in buses, in kombis. We hear people selling medicines. Medicines are very sensitive substances. Medicines are all poisonous substances. And as a result, for us, we cannot just ignore all these activities. We have to take a holistic perspective on how to best provide for access to the people of Zimbabwe. And one of the issues that the authority is very worried about is that there’s a proliferation of selling of antibiotics in the streets and undesignated areas. And also recently, and probably even more worrying, there’s been… some instances in which some pharmacists have been found selling falsified medicines. So a falsified medicine is basically when you look at a container that says CAPS Pharmaceuticals and yet the contents are from an unknown manufacturer. And this is obviously meant to mislead, to create the impression that the medicine being sold is of good quality, safe and effective. But in those instances, those medicines would actually be something else,” he said.
Mr Rukwata emphasised that the MCAZ takes the issue of falsified medicines seriously, warning that anyone caught selling such medicines risks losing their licence.
“So, the authority takes this issue of falsification very seriously to the point where they recently decided, the licensing and advertising committee decided recently that anyone caught falsifying medicines would risk losing their licenses. So obviously due process will be undertaken, investigations will be done, but the authority is very much convinced that this is an extremely serious transgression because when people go into pharmacies, they trust the system, right? When somebody buys medicines from the street, they really do not have any recourse. And I don’t think anyone buying medicines from a street corner should expect to have… But when you enter a pharmacy which is licensed, you expect that you are dealing with professionals, you expect that you are dealing with people who actually care for your health and people who are also compliant with all the laws of the nation. So we feel that betraying that trust is a serious problem. It is a serious transgression of the law and anybody caught in that act does not actually deserve to provide any further services to the people of Zimbabwe, hence the risk of losing their licenses.”
This year, more than ten wholesale dealers had their pharmacy licences cancelled for various violations, including purchasing medicines from unauthorised sources, selling unregistered and expired medicines and selling specially-restricted preparations without a prescription.
