Embattled Tobinco sacks 600 workers

Over 600 workers of local Pharmaceutical Company, Tobinco, have been laid off.

The company says the workers have become redundant following the branding of its imported drugs as fake by the food and drugs authority.

The FDA recently warned the public against purchasing drugs imported by Tobinco Pharmaceuticals after majority of its drugs failed to meet the quality approval standards of the country.

Speaking to XYZ news, the financial controller of the company, Isaac Obed Brown, said the workers have been asked to go home because there is no work to be done.

Recent post-market surveillance exercises conducted by the FDA revealed that Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited had imported and distributed fake and unregistered medicines onto the Ghanaian market.

The identified medicines numbering over 100 were manufactured by BLISS GVS PHARMA Limited, located at 10 Dewan Udyog Nagar, Aliyali Palghar Maharashtra- 401, 404 India.

A statement issued and signed by the Chief Executive of FDA, Dr. Stephen Opuni, said the fake and unregistered medicines had been supplied to regional medical stores, hospitals and pharmacies nationwide.

It said the medicines posed a serious threat to public health and safety, since they had not been evaluated for their quality, safety and efficacy by the Authority.

The FDA has, in the meantime, detained all the fake and unregistered medicines found in the premises of Tobinco Pharmaceuticals and has directed those already distributed be immediately recalled countrywide in order to protect public health and safety.

Out of the over 100 medicines imported and distributed by Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited, only seven have duly been given approval by the FDA.

The approved medicines are Nifin 20-R Tablets, Slipizem 2.5mg Suppository, Slipizem 5mg Suppository, Lonart tablets, Lonart Forte Tablets, Lonart Oral Suspension, and Ciprotab Tablets.

The statement advised regional medical stores, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, licensed chemical sellers, maternity homes and other health facilities to avoid purchasing medicines imported by Tobinco and manufactured by BLISS GVS PHARMA Limited, which are not among the seven registered medicines for disbursement to the public.

It urged the listed facilities to hand over stocks of the medicines to the nearest FDA office for safe disposal.

Tobinco’s Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Tobin, recently said in a statement that: “Our drugs that were and are being destroyed by the FDA are not fake drugs”.