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`Fake cough syrup possibly a backyard product`
2007-05-16 08:41:11
By Hellen Nachilongo
The fake cough syrup known as Mist Expectorant Sedative (MES) now in circulation in the local market might have been manufactured by unlicensed backyard factories, the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority has said.
TFDA public relations officer Gaudensia Simwanza said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that Afya Laboratories Limited, the company whose batch number appears on the fake medicine, closed shop last year after it failed to meet good manufacturing practice.
She said while the factory went under on February 25 last year, the fake MES shows that the syrup was manufactured by the same factory just the next day.
The TFDA official explained that it was not possible for Afya Laboratories Limited stock to still be in the market almost a year after the factory went out of business.
She also said it was not possible for the company to have resumed operations because TFDA locked the factory and disconnected all machines.
`The company failed to install a good water system and lacked specialists and quality control laboratory equipment. It also failed to install shelf-life equipment,` noted Simwanza.
She said the firm asked for a plot at Gongo la Mboto in suburban Dar es Salaam where it was to re-open its operations “but as of now there are no developments of the company’s reopening”.
The fake MES is dark blue while the genuine one that was registered was brown, she added.
She called on dealers and members of the public to refrain from selling or using the fake MES marked batch number EC348, which is purported to have been manufactured by Afya Laboratories limited.
The firm`s drug manufacturing licence was revoked in February last year.
Elaborating, Simwanza said all pharmaceutical dealers stocking the fake medicine should return it to the suppliers and report the matter to the nearest district or regional health offices or TFDA zonal offices.
She said the most common side-effects associated with the ingestion of the fake medicine were diarrhea and abdominal pains.
On Monday TFDA alerted the public on the existence of stocks of MES in the local market that did not conform to prescribed standards for human use.
Efforts to contact police sources for comment on the reports failed yesterday.
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