Withdraw inferior antimalarial drug from shelves, board orders
Dr Jacinta Wasike from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (centre) with other officials in Kisumu on March 22, 2018. The board had recalled an antimalarial drug from the market after it failed a quality test. PHOTO | ANGELA OKETCH | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Antimalarial drug Duo-Cotecxin, which is in circulation in Kenya, failed a laboratory quality test.
- The Board ordered that it is withdrawn from pharmacy shelves and advised against further importation.
An antimalarial drug called Duo-Cotecxin that failed a laboratory quality test has been recalled from the Kenyan market over safety concerns.
Dr Jacinta Wasike, the director of inspection, surveillance and enforcement at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, told reporters in Kisumu on Thursday that the Board has advised against further importation of the drug.
RECALLED
She said the Board immediately acted on an alert that revealed that the drug of batch number 160621, which is widely in circulation across the country, failed an assay test. It was declared substandard, quarantined and an order issued to withdraw it from pharmacy shelves in Kenya.
“There was this particular batch that raised questions and immediately we placed a quarantine and recalled all the drugs,” said Dr Wasike at a press conference in Kisumu.
The drug samples that were purchased from a pharmacy outlet in Nairobi are manufactured by Chinese firm Zhejiang Holley Nanhu Pharmaceutical co. The drugs' expiry date is May 2018.
