The Food and Drugs Board, FDB, is considering the introduction of a new technology that will detect fake drug products from genuine ones. The technology will indicate codes on the products which will be verified later from the manufacturers. The Acting Deputy Chief Executive of the Board, Rev. Jonathan Martey, announced this in Accra at a stakeholders forum on global Partnership for Safe Medicines.

He said the initiative stems from the increasing rate of counterfeiting of medicines. Rev. Martey said providing safe medicines should be the concern of all health professionals saying it will be sad if consumers lost trust in Pharmacists. He asked health professionals, drug manufacturers and importers to consider it a challenge to help the FDB control this phenomenon. Rev. Martey also called on the media to educate the public on the need to check expiry dates on drugs before buying.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Gladys Ashitey, said fake drugs are dangerous to human health and urged stakeholders in the Health Sector and manufacturers to assist the Ministry of Health arrest the fraudsters.

The Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, Scott LaGanga, said the country needs to enforce laws governing drugs and make it obligatory for all pharmacists to abide by them. He also expressed worry about the number of unsafe drugs on the global market and appealed to relevant agencies to come up with measures to erase counterfeiting in the system.