Pharmacists ‘wait and see’ on Medical Products Act

Private pharmacists are reviewing the new Medical Products Act, they said on Wednesday, raising concerns about how its provisions could affect the domestic drug supply and regulatory environment.

The bill, which passed in the House of Assembly on Tuesday after already being cleared by Senate lawmakers, aims to tighten control over the quality and supply of medicines to guard against counterfeit drugs and reduce reliance on external sources.

President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Barbados, Marlon Ward Rogers, said on Wednesday his organisation was now carefully examining the provisions of the measure as they would affect the industry.

“We are still discussing and looking through it to see what’s going on. We are working on reviewing it and looking over it,” Ward Rogers told Barbados TODAY.

“We have to meet and see what’s going on. You know it went to Parliament [Wednesday]; so we have to see what other changes will happen and what they plan to do going forward. That’s all I could say right now.”

Introducing the legislation in the House in a landmark cross-chamber appearance under new constitutional arrangements passed late last year, Minister of Health Senator Lisa Cummins said the proposed legislation is intended to establish the island’s medical products sovereignty, with a primary focus on protecting the public from the dangers of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

She identified section 6 of the act, which governs the registration and marketing authorisation of medical products.

Senator Cummins told the House that the regulation is essential to safeguard the community from fraudulent drugs and those marketed under false pretences about their efficacy.

“One of the things,” the health minister added, “that this legislation is meant to do is to protect this community by way of regulation from counterfeiting drugs and drugs that are marketed to do one thing but really are not doing what they’re said to do.”

She also referred to the law’s provision for the creation of Barbados Pharmaceutical Inc., a pharmaceutical production company.

This would provide a base for Barbados to evolve “from just a logistics hub to a pharmaceutical hub to a distribution hub, and to a regulatory hub” for the region, she said. 

(EJ)