"Harmonize Drug Policy," SADC States Are Urged

Countries of the Southern African Development Community have been urged to harmonize their drug policies in order to protect consumers from dangerous medicines.

Norman Nyazema, a clinical lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, has spoken out strongly on the vulnerability of countries in the region which are heavily dependent on drug imports and thus vulnerable to dumping. According to a report from the Xinhua news agency, Prof Nyazema warned that in the absence of clear-cut policies, "obsolete, ineffective, dangerous or irrational combinations of drugs" would find a market in some countries. "In the SADC region there is an urgent need to harmonize drug legislation and regulation, for exchange of information among regulatory authorities and enforcement of consumer protection laws," he added, warning that some drugs donated to a number of developing countries had been found to be "either nearing expiry or outright useless."

What Prof Nyazema failed to mention, however, is that many of these dubious drugs emanate from the African continent, and in so far as drug donations are concerned, very often medicines pass their sell-by-date not at the originator but because they have been left in docksides of warehouses rather than been distributed promptly to people who need them. Ed.