Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Mrs. Delase A. A. Darko has expressed its commitment to be more accountable to the public and also work extra closely with its stakeholders.
In an effort to ensure that proper products were visible on the market, she disclosed the need for public assurance to be bolstered.
“All the work we do depends on how the public sees us, so we are going to listen to our stakeholders a lot more and be more accountable to the public”.
To achieve this, she noted that the Authority, FDA had since the commencement of the year has reduced its registration fees and improved its registration processes at the port to ensure that producers did not have an excuse to bring unregistered products into the markets.
Additionally, Mrs. Darko stated that, her outfit would also be extra receptive to the concerns of the public, while using technology as an enabler for effective and efficient regulation.
Commenting on the influence of the local economy last year, she revealed that the Ghanaian local industry stands the chance of competing with foreign products.
To achieve this, she explained that “what we need now is a good labelling and packaging plant in Ghana to make the right packaging”.
In harnessing the benefits of the African Free Continental Trade regime, Mrs Darko said the FDA was however poised to collaborate effectively with the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) this year to ensure public safety.
The FDA and GSA have commenced harmonization of their operational activities to promote safe, quality and efficacious imported and exported products.
Through the collaboration of FDA and the GSA in 2020, Ghana became the first country in the world to have a standard for nose mask.
She said the FDA was ready to make sure that the Coronavirus vaccine would be stored rightly when brought into the country.
Mrs. Darko said the Authority had put in place a safety monitoring system to ensure that persons who had any reaction to the vaccine reported for further investigations.
“We will put in a system with the Extended Programme on Immunization (EPI) to ensure that every single person who is vaccinated is followed up to access the safety of the vaccine”.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has asked Ghanaians to desist from purchasing hydrogen peroxide not approved by the authority.
Due to the increasing number of active cases of COVID-19, the FDA said this has led to panic buying of hydrogen peroxide.
It warned that the panic buying has given rise to “substandard hydrogen peroxide on the markets.”
According to the FDA, this came to light during its monitoring with Officers of the Pharmacy Council (PC).
“The general public is also being reminded to purchase only Food and Drugs Authority approved hydrogen peroxide and other medicinal products and be on the lookout for the mandatory FDA registration number on such products if they are manufactured in Ghana,” FDA advised in a statement.
