16 Jun 2020

Shortage of some medicines that has hit the country in the past months will soon be addressed, says Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BoMRA) chief executive officer, Dr Stephen Ghanie.

Addressing the media on Monday, Dr Ghanie said since the outbreak of COVID-19, Botswana had experienced shortage of some medicines as manufacturing countries preferred to satisfy their domestic needs before exporting.

Dr Ghanie said following negotiations with BoMRA’s South African counterpart, it had been agreed that medicines which had been in short supply would be provided since the authority was now satisfied the domestic market had been serviced.

He said COVID-19 pandemic was proving to be a challenge to non-manufacturing countries noting that lessons had been learnt.

He called on Batswana to start manufacturing some essential products such as medicines to guard against such current situations.

On other issues, Dr Ghanie said the organisation’s mandate as regulator was to give Batswana assurance, hope and trust that all medicines, medical products, including complementary medicines distributed, manufactured and used in Botswana were safe, efficacious and above all of good quality.

It also ensured that health professionals and patients had the necessary information to enable them to use medicines rationally .

In addition, it ensured that promotion was done in a fair and balanced manner.

Regarding street pharmacies which sold products not approved by BoMRA, he said the organisation was working hand in hand with law enforcement agencies to bring culprits to book.

The offence, he said, attracted a fine ranging between P40 000 and P50 000 and even imprisonment.

Dr Ghanie appealed to Batswana to refrain from using products sold on the streets as some were very dangerous.

For his part, director of registration, Dr Nkaelang Modutlwa said all medicines used in Botswana had to be registered.

Dr Modutlwa said there were exemptions in some instances such as with the widely used infrared thermometers.

He explained that the thermometers were exempted from rigorous registration because of the emergency situation.

Dr Modutlwa however said  BoMRA quickly reacted to people’s concerns that some  thermometers were not working properly.

“We have appointed a local company to do the calibration of these thermometers as we are thin on the ground, but I can assure you that the company is doing well to make sure that the thermometers are the right standard,” he said.

Regarding the suspension of grandpa, Dr Modutlwa said the manufacturer had temporarily halted production in order to make some improvements on the product. ENDS