The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Drug Authority (NDA) enforcement team has today ended their operation by confiscating drugs worth Shs 200 million in Kampala and Wakiso which are not worth being on the market.
Dr. Muhammad Lukwago who heads NDA’s central region operations says among the drugs confiscated is popular emergency contraceptive pill postinor 2. He said the drug they found on the market is not what is supposed to SOLD because they only authorized those in dark green packaging.
While he couldn’t tell whether the drug is counterfeit or not as laboratory analysis of the confiscated drug have just started, he said minor checks on the labels and batch numbers show the drug could be sold in Kenya.
According to Dr. William Tamale, who is in charge of the regions, the same operation led to inspection of 787 drug outlets of which 283 were issued with closure notices and others closed. Among outlets inspected also included 45 pharmacies, 645 drug shops for human medicine, 15 veterinary drug shops whereas 69 clinics were operating illegal pharmacies and illegal drug shops therein.
The operation also sunk in herbal medicine dealers who were selling drugs that are not labelled. Dr. Lukwago says that NDA has made reforms and came up with requirements for acceptable packaging for herbal medicines.
Also some six people were apprehended for hawking herbal medicines, and megaphones were confiscated.
According to NDA, cracking the whip on herbalists followed a cordial interaction with leaders of herbalists and over 95 members based in Kampala to orientate them on best practices. This meeting happened a month ago but to date, no reasonable changes had been made by herbalists as agreed.
Dr. Tamale says that the dealers were visited by officials at their respective premises to address issues of sale of herbal drugs from make shift structures. They were educated on the dangers of sale and advertising of herbal drugs with unverified therapeutic claims and at times adulterated with conventional medicine.
However, since 2019, NDA has been conducting such operations in different parts of the country but they report levels of compliance are generally still low.
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