RIYADH, 17 August — The Ministry of Health has tightened restrictions on pharmacies that allegedly sell outdated medicines, free samples and packages/bottles of medicines that don’t show medical labels in Arabic and English.
The MoH will also take punitive action against pharmacists who indulge in such fraudulent practices. “The ministry will punish any pharmacist who does not abide by the MoH’s guidelines for selling medicines in Saudi Arabia”, said Dr. Saleh Al-Rais, director general of medical licenses and pharmaceutical services, in a statement here.
Dr. Al-Rais said pharmacies must provide medicines to customers according to medical prescriptions with specific information about daily dose, quantity and quality. Of late, there have been complaints against pharmacies which flout MoH guidelines in a bid to make fast money. It is alleged that they even hand out free samples of medicines to customers at a convenient cost.
There are more than 5,000 types of medicines, mostly imported from outside the country, which are sold by over 600 pharmacies across the Kingdom. The number of pharmacies is growing every day with the increase in population and growth of local medicine market which already has an annual turnover of over SR3 billion.
Saudi Arabia imports 85 percent of its total consumption of medicine and nearly 80 percent of the total bulk purchase of medicine by the six- nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is consumed by the Kingdom alone. Referring to MoH guidelines on the operation of pharmacies, Dr. Al-Rais said: “Pharmacists are not allowed to substitute medicines shown on the prescription without the doctor’s consent. This can only be done by the doctor who wrote the prescription.” Substitution of medicines has been a common practice among pharmacists and also customers.
He also warned pharmacists to refrain from selling those local or foreign-made medicines, which have not been registered by the MoH.
Pharmacists have questioned the slow-moving process of registration in the Kingdom. They claim that a number of important medicines, currently sold in European and American markets, are pending registration and clearance from the MoH.
Referring to the move to impose tighter restrictions on pharmacies, Dr. Al-Rais said that the MoH’s inspection teams will carry out surprise visits to pharmacies to ensure that the medical shops comply with regulations.
If a pharmacist is found guilty of charging exorbitant price, he will be fined SR50,000 and even his license could be withdrawn temporarily or permanently, he said. The pharmacist may also face a three-year prison term.
“The same punishments can also be applied to those pharmacists who will sell outdated medicines,” he said.
The MoH has been monitoring the medicine market with a view to ensuring distribution of quality medicines at reasonable prices. Besides MoH, some medical societies have also been monitoring the adverse effects of a range of old and new medicines sold in the Saudi market.
One such organization — Saudi Society of Dermatology & Venereology (SSDV) recently cautioned physicians across the Kingdom against prescribing certain medicines to patients on grounds that those medicines might cause complications during or after the course of administration.
