East African Business Week

Kampala, Uganda- National Drug Authority (NDA) has made it clear that all drugs allowed into the country are proved to be effective and should not be selected basing on the country of origin.
The PR of NDA Fredrick Sekyanzi said that what prescribers do to selectsome drugs over others is totally unprofessional because it biases the patients yet all drugs are inspected and certified before they are imported into the country.
"We cannot allow a weaker drug into the system because all drugs are verified and certified basing on the components and the ability to cure an illness," Sekyanzi explained.
Sekyanzi added that the drug is subjected to many laboratory tests and evaluation even after proving it and allowing it into the country to monitor its sustenance as at registration.
"Drugs that pose issues are first cleared with consultation from other regulatory bodies for perfection and post evaluation is done for health reasons," he added. "We cannot subject people to poor drugs because we emphasize import assessment of drugs of which color, packaging, quality and components are the most important issues not the origin of the manufacturer."
The clarification comes in at a time when many doctors and other health professionals have a tendency of prescribing certain drugs in preference to others. Given the fact that many health centers cannot afford providing all the drugs to patients for reasons of high costs of drugs, they refer them to purchase the drugs from pharmacies and drug stores. The issue has been that doctors and other medics prescribe drugs from specific countries undermining the same drugs from other countries.
Mariam Mpumwire a mother of two was recommended to buy Coartem (artemether-lumefantrine) for her 8 year old son. She was shocked to find the drug from Switzerland at a price as high as Ushs 25,000 in different pharmacies yet the same drug from China cost Ushs 10,000 in the same pharmacies.
"I decided to go for the cheapest because they all cured malaria but the doctor advised me to opt for the one from Switzerland," Mpumwire said. The reason the medic gave for the preference was that the same drug from Switzerland and the UK reacts faster than the one from China.