Seized drugs go missing

PHARMACEUTICAL products which were seized from a Lebanese businessman of Lusaka’s Kamwala by the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority have allegedly gone missing at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) incinerator.
This came to light yesterday when officers from the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority and journalists from various media organisations went to witness the destruction of the products at the UTH incinerator but were informed that the medicines had already been burnt.
The products, which include skin lighting creams and other pharmaceutical medicines weighing about 816 kilogrammes, were allegedly destroyed in the absence of officers from the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority, Zambia Police Service, Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and Lusaka City Council (LCC).
Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority public relations officer Ludovic Mwape wondered why the pharmaceutical products were destroyed in the absence of the authorities.
“We don’t know who told the incinerator operator to burn the products without the consent and presence of the responsible authorities,” Mr Mwape said.
But Lazarus Kabwe, the incinerator operator at UTH, said he was directed by a police officer to destroy the medicines.
In October last year, a joint team of officers from Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority, Zambia Police Service, LCC and DEC seized the pharmaceutical products from Ali Hachem, a Lebanese businessman.

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