HEALTH: Pharmacists Vow to Clean Up Guinea of Illicit Drugs

By Saliou Samb Reprint | | Print |

Saliou Samb

CONAKRY, Jun 17 2002 (IPS) - Pharmacists in Guinea have launched a campaign to clean up the West African country of illicit pharmaceutical drugs.

The campaign began during the May 28-Jun 3 meeting, on ‘Awareness Campaign on the Danger of Illicit Drugs’, in Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

In Conakry, drugs can be purchased from five main markets over the counter, a practice that is posing serious public health problems, as most of the vendors have no qualifications as pharmacists.

Enraged by the practice, Dr. Fode Drame, president of the Guinean Physicians, says “one cannot call oneself a pharmacist without the proper credentials. When you see the damage that certain medicines cause, such as poisoning, acute allergies, even cardiac arrest, you realise how important it is to end this illicit sale of drugs, which today represents 66 to 70 percent of the market in Guinea”.

“Our campaign also involves improving the image of the country’s pharmaceutical distribution network,” says Dr. Mamadou Cammara, vice-president of the Guinean Pharmacists. “We also promote generic medications, which offer the same results as trademark drugs but are less expensive.”

The high cost of drugs has boosted illegal sales in Guinea – an impoverished West African country of about seven million people – where vendor prices are often half those in the pharmacy. For example, a diabetes drug, which fetches 63,000 Guinean francs (around 31.5 U.S. dollars) in a pharmacy, costs 24,000 francs (around 12 U.S. dollars) at the vendor.

Many Guineans, like journalist Moustapha Tchida, say they prefer buying cheap drugs from the vendor. “Pharmacies are first of all too expensive. The last time I went in for a splitting headache, I bought an aspirin that cost me three times more than what I would have purchased from the vendor. And the aspirin didn’t relieve my headache, so I went to a Chinese neighbour of mine who sells drugs in the street. He suggested some cheap tablets and the trick worked,” says Tchida.

Dr. Drame warns that, “Even if good quality product can be located in the market, there are risks if bought from someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Sometimes, the dealer himself does not know that the product has expired.”

A recent survey, by pharmaceutical wholesalers, found that “58 percent of the medications dumped on the illicit market have no active ingredient, and contain an overdose of 16 percent or more.”

Some accuse physicians, whom they claim are in league with the country’s 25-million-dollar pharmaceutical industry, of prescribing medications that are much more expensive than generics. “Of course, not every drug has a generic equivalent, but a doctor who does such a thing is unethical and unprofessional,” says Dr. Drame.

“What’s strange in Guinea is that regulated pharmacists are going broke, while the wholesalers are raking it in,” says a pharmacist in Conakry.

Fatoumata Sylla, a vendor in Conakry, says she gets her products through “a lady at a wholesale firm. But in any case, I do this job because I want to enjoy a good standard of living”.

Cautioning the public, Dr. Cammara says, “You can indeed find decent products in the market. But you have to know that most of them are stolen at the airport or the seaport. This problem concerns professionals as well as non-professionals”.

In Benin, at least a tonne of drugs have been seized by health officials and will be destroyed, according to the director of the country’s pharmacies and laboratories, Abdoulaye Idrissou.