Recently, we’ve been hearing complaints that certain prescription drugs are scarce, and many have had to look over the border to find what they need. Well that is because the Ministry of Health is now enforcing strict standards for importation of pharmaceuticals across the board.
While this new system may cause major inconvenience to those  who depend on the regular supply of pharmaceutical products, the Director of Health Services Dr. Marvin Manzanero told us via telephone today that these standards are for the publics own good.
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services, MOH
"There's not no real restriction in terms of medication once the medication meets the established requirements. As you will recall from last year in the middle of last year we faced a moratorium in terms of medications that can come into country or not which means all new medications coming into country would have to have a good manufacturing practice certificate or a certificate of analysis. This is across the board and if the new sender process that the government has sought to enforce that which means we want to be able to ensure to the public that whatever is coming into country is of good quality and it meets international standards."
"What we are noticing is the traditional importers and we have about more than 50 pharmaceutical importing companies would traditionally just bring in medication without going through that process. Now that we are enforcing the regulations in order to make sure that everybody meet those minimum standards some of the importers are having difficulties and so they are saying well we can't access the medication, we can't provide the medication to the private sector or to the government but that is a given anywhere in the world so it can't be that we are bypassing this particular situation."
Courtney Weatherburne
"What was in place before if that's the case to ensure that the medication or any pharmaceuticals coming into the country are actually safe?"
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
"It wasn't perhaps being enforced at any level but now mind you this is being done at all levels, all international companies are scaling up the same situation across the board. As I give you an example in the past and now companies that are exporting medication to Belize, they are requesting these 14 companies in Belize to get permission from the relevant health authorities before the medication can be exporter to Belize, that wasn't being enforced. You would have seen for example just in our neighbours in Mexico where they were some company was giving them fake insulin made in China, some medication in the state of Veracruz that were found to be just placebo drugs, those are the issues we are try to curtail and again the basis is trying to safe guard the health of everybody."
So as you heard if the importers do not have the good manufacturing practice certificate to import pharmacuti LS , the products will not be allowed in the country. The ministry plans to develop a drugs registry with a the drugs that can enter the country.
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