High tariffs on drugs breeds counterfeit medicines
Accra, July 27, GNA – High tariffs and taxes on imported medicines in Ghana and other African countries are driving many people to traditional quack cures or to cheap counterfeit medicines. Ghana places 22.3 per cent levy on imported drugs; Congo-Kinshasa, 39.5 per cent; Morocco, 18.3 per cent and Zimbabwe, 22.5 per cent. Brazil, whom all the countries wanted to copy, levies nearly 30 per cent on imported medicines and South Africa slaps 14 per cent sales tax even on AIDS drugs.
27 July 2006