The Food and Drug Board Authority (FDA) has alerted the public and health workers on the circulation of counterfeit antimalarial drug- Combiart Tablets (Artemether/ Lumefantrine) on the Ghanaian market.
According to the FDA, it market surveillance activity samples of the counterfeit antimalarial from the Northern Region revealed that the drug did not contain any of the two active pharmaceutical ingredients stated on the label.
“The FDA as part of its market surveillance activities wishes to bring to the attention of health workers and the public, the presence of falsified (counterfeit) antimalarial drug- COMBIART Tablets (Artemether/Lumefantrine 20/120) on our market,” statement issued by the FDA said.
It further noted that samples of the drug from the Northern Region did not contain any of the two active pharmaceutical ingredients stated on the label, hence can be classified as falsified.
The FDA gave details of the counterfeit drug as Batch number: 7225119 Manufacturing date: 03/2021 Expiry date: 02/2024 Manufacturer: Strides Arcolab Ltd. NAFDAC Registration: A4-6700.
The FDA statement therefore cautioned health workers and the public to be on the lookout and report to the Authority the presence of this particular antimalarial drug- Combiart Tablets with the aforementioned details.
The FDA reiterated its commitment to combat counterfeit medicines adding that it is working with other agencies and the private sector to help protect the nation’s drug supply.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke