The Ministry of Health says as part of its efforts to regulate the consumption of fake drugs in the country, a new platform is being developed which will contain the database of all approved drugs and help individuals check their genuineness before taking them.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, a pharmacist at the Ministry of Health, Festus Korang, said this strategy project is expected to be enrolled fully in five years’ time.

The platform, known as the Ghana Initiative Logistic Management Information System (GILMES), is to ensure the visibility of medicines from the central level, right down to the primary healthcare level, and the chip compound to the patient.

He said the strategy project will create a pathway where all drugs coming into the system will pass through, be examined and approved. Data of approved drugs will be uploaded, and using the platform, individuals can conveniently crosscheck the genuineness and authenticity of drugs before consumption.

“The strategy is like a supply chain channel where every medicine that gets into the system will have to pass through that channel. The relevance of coming up with such a strategy is to help the end user to be able to dial code on a mobile phone to check if the drug can be taken or not.”

According to him, it will be difficult to completely eradicate fake drugs from the system especially because they come in from different streams.

“We cannot stop all the people bringing it from various places, but what we can do is to ensure that the one that is coming is passing through the right channel and then we will come up with an App which will help the consumer to know what to take or not take,” he explained.

Mr. Korang said that the issue of fake drugs is a global problem hence the Ministry considered the global trend and came out with a strategy that will help Ghana adopt the best practices in the world.

According to the Ministry, ten percent of child deaths are from the consumption of fake drugs and this is very problematic.