Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Medical Regulatory Authority (BOMRA) has recently raided Molepolole pharmacies in a bid to nip in the bud the increase in sales and distribution of unauthorised medical products through unregistered and illegal platforms.
In an interview, BOMRA public relations officer, Ms Itumeleng Ledimo said their goal was to develop enforcement strategies in collaboration with other stakeholders including the Botswana Police Service and the bye-law department to assist in dealing with unauthorised marketing and distribution of cosmetics and medicines.
“Our intention is to increase public knowledge as we have realised that some people are illegally trafficking products into the country.
Therefore it is time to build a robust regulatory structure as illegal distributions continue to increase,” said Ms Ledimo.
She noted that routine inspection were carried out at pharmacies to ensure compliance, but their main challenge was a high number of illegal sale of cosmetics, medicines and medical devices in the informal markets.
She indicated that in their recent raids they had apprehended three individuals and one pharmacy with illegal products such as contraceptives and creams that were believed to be used for skin lightening and could cause skin cancer.
Ms Ledimo added that even though some of the medicines were authorised to be used in the country, it was wrong to obtain and distribute them without the requisite skills.
She further cautioned the public to avoid using products that were not prescribed by medical practitioners as that could endanger their lives.
Kweneng District Council principal bye-law officer, Ms Patricia Mokento said their role was to perform administrative, inspectoral and regulatory work to enforce bye-laws relating to business regulations, noise and animal control, among others.
“We have noticed that business operators in Kweneng fail to renew trade licenses and operate without such, which creates problems and generates complaints, thus we embarked on inspecting all operational businesses in Molepolole,” Ms Mokento said.
She indicated that the sale of expired goods remained a persistent issue, something she said was a concern as it implied that businesses were knowingly flouting the law.
Meanwhile, Sub-inspector Goodman Mphato of Molepolole police said in fighting drug trafficking in Botswana, the public should avoid selling and purchasing restricted medicines without advice from medical practitioners.
He said in taking part in the fight against drugs and alcohol abuse they had collaborated with BOMRA to raid the shops and pharmacies, confiscating all spoilt goods and fining those found with illegal medicines or products.
“As law enforcers we visit different locations, but our main concern are shops that display expired products.
The Food Control Act mandates the authority to protect the interests of consumers by means of investigation, prohibition and control of unfair business practices,” he said.
He thus called on consumers to avoid buying expired goods and encouraged them to read product labels carefully.
He also urged residents to avoid buying unprescribed medications as that could be hazardous.
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