By: Momodou Justice Darboe
More pharmaceutical products continue to be quarantined at the Banjul International Airport (BIA) as importers look around for answers to the government’s newly introduced stringent medicines importation regulations, dependable sources informed The Voice.
Medicinal products are being stockpiled at the BIA as Gambian authorities have yet to okay their release to the owners, this medium was reliably informed.
The acting Director of the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), Essa Marenah, recently told this medium that no medicine would be allowed to leave the airport or customs without fulfilling the MCA’s requirement for it to be registered.
He emphasized that regulations around the importation of medicines have become more robust thanks to the recommendation by the AKI Commission that every medicine must be registered before it can find its way to the Gambian market.
As large amounts of medicines remained stuck at the airport and fast approaching their sell-by-date, some importers have now turned to sources, where they have been granted the right to registration for many years. But even at that, they are still reportedly experiencing nightmares in getting their medicines cleared from the airport because MCA has insisted that the registered medicines must be tested.
“It baffles me when they (MCA) insist that the products must be tested. MCA has no testing facility to test medicines,” said one of our sources.
One of the sources accused MCA of sabotage and exposing people to risks.
“These are registered drugs and so why the MCA making life is tougher for us by going further to say the products must now be tested?” the source stated.
Meanwhile, fears have been mounting over a possible drug shortage in the country if MCA and medicines importers cannot sort out their issues at the appropriate time.
Efforts to reach MCA or relevant health ministry officials have proved futile.