The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called on the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to swiftly inspect and verify pharmaceuticals cleared at the Tema Port.
A shipment containing crucial antiretroviral medicines, tuberculosis, and malaria treatments, donated by the Global Fund, encountered delays at the Tema Port, with only 14 out of 182 containers reaching the Ministry of Health after nearly a year.
These delays stemmed from unresolved third-party fees.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Richard Selormey, stressed the need to ensure the integrity of these drugs, citing concerns over potential expiration or compromise due to storage conditions at the port.
“There are medications that you are told to keep in certain temperature ranges. Some are to be kept in refrigerators. Some are also to be kept at room temperature. So not every medication is supposed to be kept anyhow because these affect the actual drug in the medication that is supposed to work in the people.
“So what the call by the president of the Ghana Medical Association is that the Food and Drugs Authority which is seized with the responsibility and the legal mandate to check that every drug and food that goes into the human body or that comes onto our market is safe for consumption and is as efficacious as it claims to be, it is for them to check these medications because the medicines have been at the port and we know the heat.
“The medicines may not be stored at the right temperatures and conditions for which they should have been stored and so we want to be sure that when these medications come out, they are safe and can do what they were supposed to have done.”
