Health Ministry, WAHO, Reviews Legal Framework on Illicit Medicine Trade
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has hosted the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO) to review the harmonized legislation and legal framework to fight against counterfeit and illicit trade of medicines in the ECOWAS Region.
The program which takes place at the Hotel Mariam Resort in Freetown commenced on the 15th of May and ends on May 17th, 2012, is meant to ensure that the legal framework in the fight against counterfeit medical and pharmaceutical products in the West African Region is unified. This move health experts say, if achieved will strengthen the resolve of individual states in the region in the fight against the evils of the growing spate of counterfeit and substandard medicines trade in all ECOWAS member states.
Speaking to the media at the Hotel Mariam, focal person for the program Mrs. Sybil Ossei-Agyeman-Yeboah established that “a number of countries, particularly in West Africa, illicit medicines trade and the counterfeiting of medical products continue to proliferate and develop exponentially, despite efforts by the various individual National Medicines Regulatory Agencies in member states”. This she noted impacts very negatively on health and socio-economic wellbeing of the citizens, especially women and children who represent the most vulnerable groups of people in our society.
In an attempt to bring solutions to the problem according to her, the West African Health Organization and the various National Medicines Regulatory Agencies such as the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone has made the fight against counterfeit and illicit trade of medicines a major element of its strategic plan from 2009 to 2013.
The objective of the three day conference is to among other things review the first draft of the harmonized legislative and legal framework to fight against counterfeit and illicit medicines trade in the ECOWAS region. The conference is also meant to ensure that political will and commitment, adequate legislation and legal framework implementation in the fight against counterfeiting and illicit medicines trade in the region is attained. It is also meant to provide the necessary tools for the coordinated and effective law enforcement in the various member states with a view to deterring those who take luxury to trade in illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals.
It is expected that at the end of the conference, a draft regional legal framework on counterfeit and illicit medicines trade in the ECOWAS Region would have been reviewed and adopted. There would have been the necessary awareness among national, regional authorities and decision maker with a view to ensuring effective legislative measures in the combat against counterfeiting and illicit medicines trade.
Members of civil society in the country are of the opinion that the conference would not have been at a better time, especially so when Sierra Leone has reviewed its own legal framework on drug regulation and safety and is on the verge of adopting it into law in a bid to strengthen the powers of the Drug Regulatory Agency-Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone to combat the evils of counterfeit medicines trade.
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