RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a na­tion­wide crack­down on the sale of un­reg­is­tered drugs, the Food and Drug Di­vi­sion has con­fis­cat­ed sev­er­al drugs, in­clud­ing vi­t­a­mins, from over 40 phar­ma­cies across T&T. The val­ue of the drugs seized was es­ti­mat­ed at $.5 mil­lion.

Among the seized items was the Emer­gen-C vi­t­a­min drink mix, a pop­u­lar choice by con­sumers dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Al­though there is noth­ing wrong with Emer­gen-C, the vi­t­a­min mix is on­ly be­ing seized by the di­vi­sion be­cause phar­ma­cy own­ers failed to reg­is­ter the item.

In an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, for­mer Phar­ma­cy Board pres­i­dent, Wazir Ho­sein, re­vealed that the crack­down was dis­cussed at a spe­cial gen­er­al meet­ing by the board at Mount Hope last Sun­day.

While con­ced­ing the Food and Drug Di­vi­sion had the au­thor­i­ty to per­form sur­veil­lance and seizures, Ho­sein still con­tend­ed that the con­fis­ca­tion was un­just to phar­ma­cy own­ers, as they were nev­er giv­en a list of the un­reg­is­tered drugs they may have in con­tra­ven­tion of the law be­fore­hand.

“The drugs are seized with­out prop­er no­tice. It is al­leged that cer­tain med­ica­tion is not reg­is­tered and is com­ing in­to the coun­try, but this begs the ques­tion, how is it com­ing in?” Ho­sein said.

He ex­plained that some of the drugs seized have been sold over the counter to con­sumers for the past 15 to 20 years.

“Al­so, we do not have in­for­ma­tion about what is reg­is­tered and what is not. Our reg­is­tra­tion is ar­cha­ic, long, time-con­sum­ing and frus­trat­ing. If a prod­uct has a la­bel change, the length of time it takes with all our red tape is un­be­liev­able,” Ho­sein said.

Ho­sein al­so con­tend­ed that a fail­ure by the Min­istry of Health to pro­vide a list of un­reg­is­tered drugs has left phar­ma­cists in the dark about their in­ven­to­ry’s com­pli­ance.

He called on the min­istry to im­prove the drug reg­is­tra­tion sys­tem, say­ing it was too bu­reau­crat­ic. He said it is not the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of phar­ma­cists to ver­i­fy the reg­is­tra­tion sta­tus of the drugs they are sell­ing.

In or­der to al­le­vi­ate the prob­lem, Ho­sein urged the min­istry to es­tab­lish a data­base that would en­able in­stant ac­cess to in­for­ma­tion about all un­reg­is­tered drugs.

“I have been try­ing to get a prop­er list­ing be­cause we don’t have a sys­tem to see what is reg­is­tered and what is not,” he added.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, how­ev­er, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh said all reg­is­tered drugs are gazetted and are in the pub­lic do­main. He said a list­ing is al­so avail­able on­line to all phar­ma­cists.

“Al­so, all phar­ma­cists, as part of their stud­ies, are made fa­mil­iar with the le­gal oblig­a­tions of their pro­fes­sion. They are al­so taught about the ethics of their pro­fes­sion,” Deyals­ingh said.

Asked why the di­vi­sion was ramp­ing up sur­veil­lance, Deyals­ingh said: “We are do­ing this to pro­tect the pub­lic health and well-be­ing.”

He added: “I am sur­prised that a for­mer pres­i­dent of the Phar­ma­cy Board would not be sup­port­ing our ef­forts to pro­tect the pub­lic from un­reg­is­tered and ex­pired drugs, which we are al­so look­ing close­ly at.”

He said all da­ta gath­ered by the di­vi­sion will be for­ward­ed to the po­lice and er­rant phar­ma­cists caught sell­ing un­reg­is­tered, il­le­gal or ex­pired drugs can face pros­e­cu­tion.

Ef­forts were made to con­tact cur­rent Phar­ma­cy Board pres­i­dent Sa­hadeo Clin­ton and the man he suc­ceed­ed, An­drew Ra­haman, but there was no re­sponse to calls up to press time.