Cote d'Ivoire: Fight against fake medicines focused on reorganisation of the profession of pharmacy
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - Dr. Arounan Diarra, President of the National Council of the Order of Pharmacists of Côte d'Ivoire (CNOP-CI), said in the hunt for the proliferation of fake or low quality medicines, it was necessary to tackle the sources of the scourge, in this case the reorganization of the pharmacy profession.
Dr. Diarra identified several sources related to the persistence of this scourge, which is the porous borders, the lack of political will, the active complicity of some pharmacists and the passivity of the police.
According to him, the operations of seizure and destruction of falsified drugs will lead to their zero tolerance only if one tackles the sources of the evil.
He noted that some people were supplying street vendors for substantial gains.
The CNOP-CI has, therefore, set up a watch committee to control the sales of medicines from pharmacy dispensaries.
Each pharmacy holder has the obligation to produce the monthly sales report. Pharmacists who contravene are heard before the Disciplinary Board and incur sanctions such as warning, blame and the prohibition of practice in case of breach of professional ethics.
In addition, Dr. Diarra assured that the CNOP-CI will ensure that medical products and their quality will be traced by controlling the distribution channels from their manufacture to pharmacies.
He added that the CNOP-CI was not only at the task of bringing pharmacy dispensaries up to standard in terms of storage and preservation of medicines, but also for the use of good professional practices and the respect of manufacturing and dispensation standards.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has assigned three major missions to the CNOP-CI -- the fight against anti-bioresistant, falsified or substandard medicines and control of distribution channels.
The conditions and rules of practice of pharmacy in Côte d'Ivoire are governed by Law 2015-533 of July 20, 2015.
-0- PANA BAL/TBM/KND/VAO 19Sept2019
