Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA)

This article was commissioned by the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) for the purpose of asking an independent journalist in Accra, Ghana - one of four pilot countries in Africa in which MeTA is working to encourage greater transparency and accountability around the procurement, supply, and use of medicines - to look at how some of these issues are affecting people. To illustrate, the author describes a conversation with a vendor of medicine whose point of sales is on-board buses waiting for passengers.


The conversation centres on the purchase of a painkilling medication the man sells and his sources of medicine, which are the sales representatives of local and international drug manufacturers in the Central Business District (CBD). He says that half his clients come to him describing symptoms, while the other half come asking for specific drugs. The author asks if he is licensed, to which he replies: "No, but I have done this job for five years and I am familiar with common symptoms of ailments." As stated by the author, most unlicensed salesmen get their medicines from less reliable suppliers whose medicines might be imitations.


To address the health risks of obtaining medicine from unlicensed vendors, Ghana's Vice President challenged the Pharmaceutical Society to step up the fight against fake and sub-standard drugs. In April, the Society responded by launching an “Ask your Pharmacist Campaign” to encourage people to direct their enquiries about drugs to accredited pharmacists, and to buy from them, rather than from unlicensed vendors. The Society's president and the president of the Consumers Association of Ghana appeared on film to warn of the consequences of the dangers of fake drugs. As stated here, the Society believes that "anyone in the profession must be regulated and controlled for best practices."


The Deputy Health Minister has emphasised the government’s determination to ensure that medicines sold in the country are of top quality. According to this article, the Minister said that the MeTA will help find ways of removing blockages to people’s access to quality drugs, an endorsement of the MeTA project to bring together government, business, and civil society to share information and analysis about the problems around the supply of medicines in Ghana, including their quality, availability, price and promotion, and work together to explore possible solutions.

DFID website accessed on March 6 2009.