Liberia Establishes Anti-Counterfeit Drugs Agency
A new agency has been set up in Liberia to combat illegal trade in counterfeit drugs in the country.
A representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime told Voice of America that counterfeit drug crime is currently on the rise in West Africa. This puts patients at increased risk of malaria, the leading cause of death in Liberia.
The U.N. office reports that as much as 50 to 60 percent of tested medications in West Africa were either diluted or counterfeit. An August study revealed that this figure in Liberia is 44 percent. Medications with especially high levels of counterfeiting and impurities include chloroquine tablets and anti-malarial syrups.
“Here, we have got porous borders. People infiltrate our borders, bring medicine by truck at night and you find the drugs in the street,” Reverend Tijili Tarty Tyee, Liberia’s Chief Pharmacist, told the news source.
Tyee further explained that the new agency will have the dual task of eliminating substandard medications currently in Liberia as well as stationing pharmacists at the country’s borders to verify the quality of all new medications entering the country.