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Today, we got a response from the Ministry of Health which says that Brodies knew the rules well enough, but didn't do what was required at their end.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
"They have a shipment from 5 different pharmaceutical companies. None of the companies that they had brought in met the requirements which means GMP, CPP, labels need to be in English and Spanish. Notwithstanding that, we managed to give them permission for four out of the five companies under the understanding that they are going to bring in the necessary documentation. That's two, three months ago; they still haven't brought it in. There is one particular company, a distributing company, ZIOTIS and I can mention that company, which it is all products are labelled in Turkish. We said we can't allow this shipment to come in. They were alerted of this from May of this year and we told them what the process was. I think what made it a little more complicated in that particular item is that once they sent us what it is that they were trying to bring into the country, when we did an inspection, a visual inspection of what was happening there on the ground, it didn't match. So the products that they said they were bringing in are not the products that we found when we went there: they had different expiry date, different batch number, different pharmaceutical company. So because we are unable to verify that in point of fact what it is that they are saying that they are bringing in is what they are bringing in and to safeguard people, the health of people, we have said to them we can't allow this to come in. We gave them the option of shipping it back; apparently the company doesn't want it to be returned to them, so Brodies is saying well what do we do. Well, the rule has been there for more than a year; it's not that I am going to bend it back for anybody. And it is applicable to everybody; no single company has been allowed to do that."

Reporter
"Is there maybe you could maybe make them relabel or repackage the medicine?"

Dr. Marvin Manzanero
"That's only part of it. These are products that don't have a GMP, don't have a CPP, they are not labeled in English and Spanish and the fact is they don't match what they said they were bringing in."

Reporter
"Is there going to be intervention at the ministerial level? What's the next step in dealing with this?"

Dr. Marvin Manzanero
"Well I think the minister has met with them as well with the owners of Brodies and explained to them what the process was - the reason why we are taking the stance we are taking."

As he noted, Brodies cannot return the shipment to its supplier. We have seen emails where the company asks the Ministry of Health how it is to destroy the medicines.