It has emerged that family planning giant, DKT International, used unregistered drugs to terminate pregnancies at their facilities, exposing the women to severe medical complications.

Joy News’ Kwetey Nartey, who uncovered the scandal, says the drugs, which are also distributed by DKT International, have the potential to cause severe bleeding in women.

Joy News investigations show that thousands of the unregistered drugs, Misoprostol and Mifepristone, were part of a shipment of about 90,000 packets brought into the country by DKT International with the assistance fake drug dealers from Nigeria and Switzerland.

A waybill dated July 19, 2016, reveals that the family planning clinic used 500 packets of Mifepristone and 2,000 pieces of Misoprostol.

Another document sighted by Joy News shows that on August 10, 2016, the clinic used 500 packets of packets of Misoprostol and another 500 packets of Misoprostol.

A former staff of DKT International (name withheld) told Joy News that she witnessed large quantities of the unapproved pregnancy-terminating drugs being shipped into Ghana through the backdoor.

Kwetey's investigation further revealed that the drugs are sold alongside Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) approved drugs imported into the country by DKT International.

"They [DKT] bring in the regulated drugs from the authorities through the main channels, but their illegal drugs that is where the chunk of the money is," the former DKT International staff told Joy News.

DKT responds

Below is a response by the pharmaceutical company on the report by Joy News.

1. DKT has never imported or commissioned the importation into Ghana of unregistered abortion drugs. 

In January 2016, DKT was approached by a Swiss national who proposed to supply DKT with a generic version of a pharmaceutical product which DKT was already legally distributing in Ghana. It is not unusual in the pharmaceutical industry to be contacted by sales representatives of manufacturers from all over the world. In accordance with usual practice, DKT requested for samples of the product which it received from the Swiss national in March 2016. As has been DKT’s practice in compliance with the regulatory requirement, DKT held on to the samples without distributing them until approval has been received and the product successfully registered with the Food and Drugs Authority (“Regulator”).

Upon further checks with the Regulator, DKT found that the product could not be registered in the form that they were received. DKT, therefore, agreed with the Swiss national to collect the samples from DKT’s premises and return them to the supplier. On 26th August 2016, and pursuant to the agreement for the samples to be collected, the Swiss national arrived in Ghana with two guests (both of whom are Nigerian nationals and with whom DKT had no dealings).

Within minutes of their arrival, the Police arrived at the DKT premises. The Police informed DKT that information it has received suggests that a Swiss national had arrived at DKT’s premises to supply large quantities of unregistered pharmaceutical products. The Police proceeded to search the premises of DKT and interviewed some of its staff. The Police found the samples which were to be returned to the supplier through the Swiss national and confiscated them. The product found on DKT’s premises were NOT in “large quantities” and this can be verified from the authorities.

2.  The Police took possession of the samples. We are aware that the products are scheduled to be destroyed by the FDA with the full support of the DKT.

3. After an extensive investigation by the authorities, it was found that information received by the Police that the Swiss national had arrived at the DKT premises on 26th August 2016 with unregistered pharmaceuticals were unfounded and without basis.  However, given that the samples were found on the premises of DKT while yet to be registered, DKT was asked to pay an administrative charge. This is usual practice in circumstances such as these where DKT and the authorities agreed that the products be destroyed completely. To the best of our knowledge, the matter was satisfactorily dealt with by the authorities.

DKT has set high standards for its operations and it is committed to maintaining its high standards. We continue to strive to improve the healthcare system and build the capacity of the private sector through education and the provision of safe, quality, affordable and accessible reproductive health products. 

FDA rubbishes DKT response

The FDA, however, says the quantities of the abortion drugs found at the premises of DKT makes the claim they were just samples, untenable.

The Authority says even if the drugs were samples, they should have been labelled, and once they were not labelled, they ought not be administered.