Acting Head of the Pharmaceutical and Industrial Support Unit of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Samuel Asante Boateng has described the technology proposed by think tank, IMANI to help the authority rid the system off sub-standard drugs as outmoded.?
According to him the fake manufacturers have advanced technology that outwits the IMANI one. ?The counterfeiters or the fake manufacturers, their technologies are even better? And that is more dangerous than what we are using.??
Mr. Asante Boateng explained that the IMANI technology is for brand protection and cannot help detect counterfeits. ?? This one is for brand protection, why do we have to waste time on this when we want something that can detect the quality and safety of a product; it cannot do that.??
He said the fact that the IMANI technology has been accepted in Nigeria does not mean it can deal with the challenges in Ghana.?
?If in Nigeria they have problems with intellectual property of brand protection, that is not so with us [Ghana]; In Ghana we are thinking about these fake medicines or sub-standard medicines which this technology can never ever detect,?? he stated.
Speaking on?Eyewitness News, Mr Boateng said the IMANI technology only seeks to protect brands.?
?This is brand protection, because if I have manufactured my product and named it product A and then somebody buys product A, scratches and text, it comes back to the manufacturer. If it is a fake product or a sub-standard product how will the consumer know, because it comes back to the same manufacturer [fake] and has been testified, so it cannot be said to detect quality and the safety of the consumer???
Source-Evans Effah/citifmonline.com
