The Volta Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) on Wednesday advised licensed drug and chemical retail shop owners in the region to procure their drugs from wholesalers who are registered by the Board.

The Board also asked them to obtain and keep records of invoices, receipts and batches of drugs purchased from those suppliers and get them to sign any alterations to get information on the drugs as a way of checking the stocking of fake drugs.

Licensed chemical and drug retailers were also advised to be conversant with the Food and Drugs law and other regulations to guide them in their operations.

Officials of the Board gave the advice at a day's workshop on “Good Storage/Retail Practices and Combating Non-Conforming Products” for managers, owners, supervisors and sales personnel of pharmacies and licensed chemical shops in the Ho Municipality.

Mr. Roderick Daddey-Adjei, Volta Regional Officer of the FDB, said a post market surveillance conducted by the Board indicated that some pharmacies, chemical shops and herbal shops “deliberately or inadvertently stock regulated products that do not conform to required quality, safety and efficacy standards”.

He said the workshop was therefore meant to equip the licensed drug and chemical retailers in the region with some basic information and knowledge to help them avoid stocking “non-conforming products and adhere to good storage practices”.

Mr. Daddey-Adjei reminded the participants that public health and patient safety were at stake as far as their businesses were concerned.

Mr. Geoffrey .V. Arthur, a Pharmacist with the Board, advised the participants to pay close attention to the names and addresses of suppliers, date of supply and description of products, and insist on endorsement with signature and stamp of the supplier where hand-written changes were made to the information about the products supplied.

He said these were necessary to help the Board trace the sources of any fake drugs that might be supplied to them.

Mr. Arthur took participants through the Food and Drugs Law with respect to medicines, combating non-conforming products-the role of retailers, and good storage and distribution practice for pharmaceuticals and retail products”.

He admonished drug and chemical retailers to endeavour to be conversant with the features of approved drugs, so as to be able to detect fake ones and report those who supply them to the Board.

He cautioned those who stock drugs with nude pictures to take them off their shelves because they were not approved by the Board.

Mr. Arthur said the Board required collaboration and co-operation with licensed chemical and drug retailers in the region to flush out fake drug dealers whose primary aim was to make huge profits at the expense of public health.

He, therefore, advised them to be suspicious of those who offer cheaper priced drugs to them and alert the Board so as to avoid being held to account for the presence of such drugs in their shops.