By: Momodou Justice Darboe & Binta Jaiteh
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Gambia Pharmaceutical Association, Mr. Mahawa Njie, has warned that if the current medicines stock in The Gambia runs out, there will be no medicines in the country anymore.
Currently, large quantities of imported medicines are being quarantined at the Banjul International Airport as the Gambia government and medicines importers could not find common ground on the issue of registration of medicines as dictated by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA).
The MCA has recently given a directive to medicines importers that any medicines to be imported to The Gambia must be registered instead of the usual practice of listing.
This directive was given shortly after the unveiling of the AKI commission report and some medicines importers said it came late as they’d already placed orders for import.
“One thing I know, as we speak, anything that has to come to The Gambia has to be registered and this communication reached us quite recently,” Mahawa Njie, who is also the Administrator at Stop Step Pharmacy, explained to The Voicewhen contacted on the continued quarantining of medicines at the airport and seaport.
“Probably, this might be the reason why some people had already imported and it is on the way coming, and by the time it got to the airport or seaport, this communication came along. So, they would be quarantined according to the communication that everything has to be registered before they are imported,”headded.
The Gambia Pharmaceutical Association spokesperson further explained: “Before what we were doing when you bring some products, for instance from UK, you pay a listing of 25 dollars. And then they will come in. Later on, that listing was canceled. We came up with the idea of registration. Listing was said not to be in the Act probably introduced by MCA for medicines that are coming from the SRA countries on stringent regulatory measures.”
Njie said importers of medicines were blindsided by the government’s decision to bring forward the termination of listing.
“We were told they will end listing by the end of this year. All of a sudden that communication was overturned by registration. When the AKI report came, everything changed and now everything has to be registered,” he stated.
However, according to Njie, registration of medicinal products from the West is a near-impossibility.
He elaborated: “And to tell you, registration of products coming from Europe, UK, and America is almost impossible because the required documents are not attainable by importers. The documents that you require to register these products…you have to get the certificate of analysis of the product and we are not able to get these documents. However, we have evidence that these are products that are registered in these countries… for instance, the one we are bringing from the UK…every product coming from the UK has a product license number and this license number gives you detailed information about the product; information related to who registered these products in the UK and (that) this product is in circulation in the UK. If you go to the website Medicines Healthcare Related Product (MHRP), it gives you the product license number. It gives you detailed information about the product. It tells you this product was registered in the UK.”
Asked why it should be tough for importers to obtain certificates of registration, Njie explained: “The reason is we don’t import very large quantities, looking at the population of The Gambia. For you to be able to register a product, for example, this bottle,you are required to bring in 10,000, 15,000 bottles, and if I do that it’s going to expire. So what happens is, I buy 100, 200, or 300 of these and the supplier will never give me the right to be the sole distributor. How many countries are in Africa? You have Nigeria…a population of how many millions? You’retalking of 200 and something. Why not register this in Nigeria?Why not register in the country with a bigger population?”
When asked whether this situation can engender scarcity of some medicines, Njie explained: “There is already scarcity because for people to bring their medicines and they get stuck at the seaport or at the airport is because, of course, they ran out of stock that’s why they are replenishing. Not so?”
Asked about the impact of the development, the Gambia Pharmaceutical Association’s PRO said: “That question… even you yourself can answer it. How it is going to affect us? You can answer it. The stock that is in The Gambia if it is finished, there will be no medicine anymore in the country. It’s as simple as that. You are telling me you have to register this and I’m telling you I do not have the necessary document meaning I could not do it.”