Uganda: NDA Boss Grilled Over Fake Drugs

The Monitor (Kampala)
November 7, 2007
By: Yasiin Mugerwa

Members of Parliament on Monday quizzed officials from the National Drug Authority on the continued proliferation of counterfeit anti-malarial drugs in the country.

The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises investigating NDA work was meeting the board members over policy issues. NDA is the national drug regulatory body.

"We have reports that despite the presence of NDA; counterfeits have continued to find their way into the market. Our people are not safe. This is a matter of life and death," committee vice chairperson Elijah Okupa (Kasilo) said.

Earlier, NDA Board Chairman Frank Mwesigye, denied claims that some anti-malarial drugs from Ningbo, a Chinese pharmaceutical firm manufacturing, Duo-cotecxin, were fake.

"This problem was detected in Kenya recently, but studies were done immediately and we found that Uganda is safe," he said. Duo-cotecxin is a WHO pre-qualified anti-malarial which contains artemesinin, an ingredient that has been used to treat fevers in China for 2,000 years. Committee chairman John Odit (Erute South), said the situation is exacerbated by sophisticated counterfeits, with nearly genuine holograms on the fake packaging.

"High prices, high demand and shortage of raw material mean that an epidemic of fake artesunate in Africa is highly likely. We cannot buy this idea that Uganda is safe from counterfeit drugs. We need to protect our people," he said.

WHO is set to launch International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT), which is expected to work with pharmaceutical manufacturers to make drugs harder to fake, and easier to trace from factory to consumer.

WHO estimates that 200,000 of the one million malaria deaths yearly could be prevented if all the drugs taken were genuine. Up to 50 per cent of drugs sold in Asia and Africa are fake. Dr Mwesigye said lack of funds has hampered NDA operations and that for instance, in the past four years, the government had not given them funds.

"We depend entirely on drug fees and WHO," he said.

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