Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu has said the government will fully support health regulators to ensure efficient service delivery in the country.

Speaking at the second edition of the JoyBusiness Health and Wellness Trade Show on Thursday in Accra, Mr Agyeman Manu said “We are also talking about people having access to medicines that are not counterfeit, that are not fake drugs and government is making all efforts through our regulators with FDA leading to make sure that we have what it takes to be called medicine in our country.”

Mr Agyeman Manu added, “We haven’t succeeded yet but Ghana is not the only country; even in America, we still sight fake drugs and close to us is even worse; our porous borders don’t even give us room to be so efficient that we cannot trace some of these on our markets.”

The event began with a presentation by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA). 

FDA’s activities

Speaking on behalf of the CEO of FDA, James Lartey, the Head of Communications said recently, the FDA opened a laboratory at the Tema Harbour. 

The main reason for this laboratory, Mr Lartey said is to ensure that products that come into the country are checked randomly so that when they get onto the market the general public is protected.

He said the FDA has recently introduced a phrase to be used on the advertisements of all FDA regulated products - “Vetted and approved by the FDA”. 

Mr Lartey added, “FDA on daily basis will pass about 90 staff onto the markets, whether supermarkets or pharmaceutical shops to ensure that products for sale are not unwholesome.”

“Recently, the FDA has introduced Pictorial Health Warning (PHW) on tobacco products. As a nation, we have put in measures to ensure that the youth will have information that will keep them away from these products. Examples of these (PHW) are the health warnings on cigarette boxes.”

“Now, we don’t allow people to smoke in public because we want to protect the second-hand smokers,” he said.

The Joy Business Health and Wellness trade show continues on Friday, May 31 to Saturday, June 1, 2019, at the National Theatre.