The Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority has called on the public to desist from buying drugs on the streets.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today, Pharmaceuticals Regulatory Authority Director Esnart Mwape said there are a lot of illegal drug traders who are on the market posing a challenge on the health sector.
Mrs. Mwape said there are only about 60 percent registered importers and wholesalers dealing in drugs while the rest are unregistered.
She observed that some compounds such as Chawama and Bauleni are recorded to have very high numbers of illegal retail drug dealers.
She said the authorities have however confisticated a number of drugs being sold at market places and drug stores which have been operating without licenses.
Mrs. Mwape said the drug inspectors are on the ground to confisticate drugs from unregistered sellers shut down drug stores operating without trading licenses.
She noted that most compounds have retailers selling expired drugs because there are no adequate pharmaceutical dealers in those places.
Mrs.Mwape has warned all illegal drug dealers to desist from the illegal trade as the drug surveillances will soon be on the ground to deal with law breakers.
She added that her office is open to all those who want to registered their businesses and have their trading licenses before the authorities catch up with them.
This is a welcome move to save our people from wrong treatments by these dealers. how can we allow people without any knowledge about pharmacy to sale medicine. chao
Iwe KaMwape tell your comrades to stop stealing these drugs from GRZ hospitals and reselling them to these back yard tuntemba. As long as the supply is there, the chaps selling will not stop.
Ba Yesu #2 ala chinjeni ishina pantu Jesus is not a name to be used in vain. Not even as a mascott or pseudonym or alias. Your comments sometimes leave me wondering. Any way, for this particular comment, i will support you. So many drugs at clinics go missing even the ones clearly labeled “NOT FOR SALE” or “GRZ” are found in these so called drug stores. We need control as some of the drugs like antibiotics sold in such stores pose a big danger to society as a whole since their disposal is also not checked hence so many resistant strains of bacteria arise and this implies costly treatment altogether. The best way is let them employ as many inspectors as possible and confiscate the drugs