22 Drugs Banned

The food and Drugs Board (FDB) has withdrawn 22 anti-malarial drugs from the Ghanaian market due to their quality and risk to the health of the general public.

Dr. Stephen K. Opuni, Executive Director of the FDB said in an interview yesterday in Accra that his outfit would continue with the post market surveillance to assure the quality of all medicines. The affected drugs and their batch numbers are Artrine Tablet, 370402; Malar-2 Forte Tablets. 0101H; Dan mether Tablets; 005, Lomart Forte Tablets, Lf. 121; GSUNATE 24 KIT, Kf-03;GSUNATE 24 Kit, GO-02; Gsunate 100 Kit, GO-1;Amonate 400, 7005 and camosunate plus Adult Tablets, 704019.

The rest are Amonate-400; Palidar Tablets,051 Mo2792;Malafan Tablets,, 005, Meladoxine Tablets ; MD/92927;Maladrid Tablets,7007; Donaxine Tablets, 0705922; SP. Dox Tablets, SP-04; SP-Dox Tablets, SP.01; Damarich Tablets, ME 18-342 and Malareich Tablets, 47055. Dr. Opuni explained that last June, the FDB detected defective Coartem tablets which were withdrawn because they were found to contain no active ingredient which fights malaria.

In September, fake Augmentin tablets with similar defects were also withdrawn. He said 170 anti-malarial drugs were sampled before the 22 were found to be defective because they did not meet FDB specification and standards.

Dr. Opuni attributed the cause of the defect to improper storage or improper manufacturing process. It declined to name those companies and manufacturing companies because he said many other drugs manufactured by the same companies had passed the text and were being sold on the market. Dr. Opuni, however, warned that if the defective drugs were not withdrawn as ordered by the Board those concerned, would face very stringent measures including “naming and sharing them”.

Source: The G. Times