Chairman of the newly inaugurated Pharmacy Council Board, Dr Yaw Adu-Agyei Gyamfi says the Board will work with other relevant agencies and stakeholders to promote effective policies to help reduce the fake drug menace that has bedevilled the country.
“This council will promote effective policies through monitoring and inspection of pharmaceutical premises to reduce the fake drug menace that has beset our nation,” he noted at the inauguration of the Board last Friday by Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health.
It is estimated that about 20-30% of drugs being sold in the country are either fake or substandard.
Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi bemoaned the overconcentration of pharmaceutical services in the cities and capital towns across the country, and said the Board, as part of its mandate, will ensure the equitable and accessible distribution of pharmaceutical services to reach all districts and the rural communities in the country.
Additionally, he noted that the Council, together with other stakeholders, will review and strengthen the curricula of the Pharmacy Schools to enable graduates meet the expectations of the practice in the 21st Century and to ensure strict discipline among practicing pharmacists.
“We intend to exercise disciplinary powers over pharmacists who tend to leave their premises unattended to in the hands of non-professionals, which tend to affect public health,” he emphasised.
The Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, also emphasised that the new Board, being the first to be formed after the passage of the Health Professionals Regulatory Bodies Act, 2013 (Act 857), has the responsibility to provide the needed strategic direction and policies to the Council to effectively carry out its mandate.
He charged the Board to address the influx of counterfeit and substandard medicines into the country, check the indiscriminate peddling of all manner of medicines across the country, and maintain high practice standards.
“In the rapidly changing world, it is necessary for pharmacists and other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry to be updated with new and improved ways to accommodate changing needs and best practices since no person or institution seeking to achieve anything substantial can afford to be ignorant of the latest information or best practice.”
He also charged the Council to step up its public education programmes to help reduce or completely eliminate ignorance and myths associated with some disease conditions and use of medicines.
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