The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) says it will heighten surveillance of the activities of the pharmaceutical giant, DKT International, following revelations it imported and distributed hundreds of unapproved abortion pills.
Head of Drug Enforcement Department at FDA, Thomas Amedzro, says although the Authority will do its best to prevent a recurrence of the incident, success will depend on support from the public and other stakeholders.
“When incidents of this nature occur then we have to step up our market surveillance effort,” he said Monday on current affairs programme, PM Express on the Joy News channel on Multi TV.
Joy News investigations revealed DKT International used unregistered drugs to terminate pregnancies at their facilities, exposing the women to severe medical complications.
The fake Misoprostol and Mifepristone pills have the potential to cause severe bleeding in women.
About 90,000 packets of the unapproved and unlabelled drugs were brought into the country by DKT International with the assistance of fake drug dealers from Nigeria and Switzerland.
A former employee of DKT International revealed told Joy News on anonymity that the pharmaceutical giant was distributing and using the fake pills along with other approved drugs.
Although the pharmaceutical giant has been fined about GH¢50,000, there are suggestions that it should be banned for a few years. However, Mr Amedzro said that is not likely to happen.
“The products will be destroyed at a cost to [DKT]…All [DKT] activities are being monitored,” he assured.
Watch the full programme in the video link below.
