Tobinco appeals for Health Minister’s intervention

According to the Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, such a step by the minister would avert the expiry of duly registered products which have also been locked up.

In a press statement dated December 30, 2013, signed by the Managing Director, Mr J. Essuman, and made available to the Daily Graphic, the company stated; “The locking up of our warehouses has affected our business negatively. Currently we have products with valid registration locked up. We appeal to the Minister of Health to ensure the opening of the warehouses to avoid the products running into expiry.”

Tobinco also appealed to Ms Ayittey to aid them by ensuring the release of containers of medicines and other medical devices at the port, for which clearance had been denied.

He said the affected goods were registered products with valid registration certificates, registered products undergoing renewal of registration, products pending registration and medical devices.

Tobinco said its efforts to renew some of its products dated as far back as 2011, and that being conscious of its responsibilities, it had taken steps in the past to register its products with the FDA.

While declaring its acceptance of the report released by the Ministry of Health (MoH) on December 23, 2013, Tobinco said it was prepared to comply with  the recommendations and was putting in measures to implement the recommendations. Tobinco also reaffirmed its commitment to getting the impasse between it and the FDA resolved in the shortest possible time.

It appealed to all its stakeholders and well-wishers to stay calm since the company had faith in the Minister of Health and the regulatory authority’s ability to settle the matter amicably.

Controversy

Meanwhile as reported by the Daily Graphic in its December 28, 2013 issue, some aspects of the committee’s report stirred controversy between the Ministry of Health and FDA.

While officials of the FDA described some aspects of the report of the committee as untrue, the ministry maintained that the report was a true reflection of the committee’s findings, and that anybody who had misgivings should find out the truth from the ministry, rather than resorting to the media.

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the FDA, Mr James Lartey, part of the report which indicated that the FDA’s registration committee had met only once in the last four years was untrue.

He said the FDA registration committee met on a regular basis, and for 2013 alone, it had met five times; the last being on December 23, 2013, apart from meeting regularly to evaluate all documents to ensure that the dossiers presented by pharmaceutical companies did not contain forged documents.