The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
11 July 2009
THE Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (PRA) has seized medical drugs bearing Ministry of Health labels from a private clinic in Lusaka's Kalingalinga Township and handed over the owner to the police.
PRA prosecutor Brian Kabika said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the doctor who runs the clinic was taken to Kalingalinga police post where he was detained pending investigations.
Mr Kabika said the surgery situated within Kalingalinga Township had also been closed. He said the medicines confiscated included corterm, refina, ferrous sulphate tablets, quinine injections with erased labels of Ministry of Health.
The PRA hoped the detained doctor would help the police establish his source of the drugs because at the time he was interviewed by PRA officials, he indicated that he was getting them from a neibouring country. " It is a pity that if you go into our hospitals you won't find most of these drugs and yet they are finding their way to private clinics and surgeries. I think there is need for the police to assist discover the suppliers of the drugs," he said.
Mr Kabika said it was unbelievable that the drugs with Zambian Government labels could be sourced from neibouring countries and wondered why the labels were tampered with if they were genuine.
The PRA conducted inspection on the surgery and was forced to close it after it discovered the Ministry of Health labels had been teampered with and that it was operating illegally. "We have been investigating this matter for a long time and carried inspections only to discover the drugs bearing Ministry of Health labels which had been tampered with," he said.
Mr Kabika said it was common for some private doctors to be in possession of medical drugs with Government labels, which was not supposed to be the case. In another development, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) in Kapiri Mposhi has arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly attempting to steal drug exhibits from the courts.
DEC public relations and press liaison officer John Nyawali said in a statement yesterday that Brian Banda of Old Kawama Township in Kapiri Mposhi was arrested for trying to steal drugs that were being used as exhibits.
Mr Nyawali said Banda was arrested when he broke into the strong room where the exhibits were being kept and had been charged for theft and drug trafficking.
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