Monitoring systems inadequate to police counterfeit drug imports
The impact of the global multi-billion dollar trade on counterfeit drugs and its effects on the health sector and the quality of health care being afforded Guyanese cannot be accurately determined since the available mechanisms for monitoring the importation of drugs into Guyana are both inadequate and unreliable, according to Director of the Food and Drugs Department Marilyn Collins.
Speaking to Stabroek Business by telephone earlier this week Ms. Collins said that the key deficiency in the existing monitoring system lay in the absence of a drug imports monitoring system at the country's ports of entry. According to Ms. Collins the Food and Drugs Department lacks the capacity to establish an inspection regime at the various sea and airports, a circumstance that leaves the Department largely unaware of the extent of counterfeit drug imports.
22 June 2007