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Pharmacy owners protest new licensing guidelines
The pharmacy owners also accuse NDA of failing to curb mushrooming illegal drug shops around pharmacies, causing unfair competition, high taxes on drugs in terms of verification fees that has led to high costs of medicines and impracticable provisions for special importation of selected medicines by retail pharmacies. Courtesy photo
What you need to know:
- In a December 18 letter, the pharmacy owners notified the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, of their intended peaceful demonstration, citing NDA’s failure to address their issues.
- In response, however, the acting NDA secretary, Ms Helen Ndagije, said the guidelines are meant to ensure equal distribution of drugs in the country because Kampala is over served.
Kampala. Pharmacy owners in the country have petitioned Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to prevail over the National Drug Authority (NDA) in regard to the newly proposed licensing guidelines.
Under their umbrella body, the Uganda Pharmacy Owners Association (UPOA), they contend that the new guidelines, which ban the opening of new pharmacies in Kampala, are intended to curtail drug access to members of the public and loss of jobs by Ugandans.
“Only a few exceptions are made, which are highly impractical. This we believe will only move towards hindering access to pharmaceutical services by the population of Uganda. NDA already has distance restrictions between pharmacies of 500m for those in Kampala and 200m for up country pharmacies, which are sufficient to address their concerns of regulating pharmacies,” reads the petition in part.
Other accusations
The pharmacy owners also accuse NDA of failing to curb mushrooming illegal drug shops around pharmacies, causing unfair competition, high taxes on drugs in terms of verification fees that has led to high costs of medicines and impracticable provisions for special importation of selected medicines by retail pharmacies.
In a December 18 letter, the pharmacy owners notified the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, of their intended peaceful demonstration, citing NDA’s failure to address their issues.
In response, however, the acting NDA secretary, Ms Helen Ndagije, said the guidelines are meant to ensure equal distribution of drugs in the country because Kampala is over served.
“We are doing this in their [patients] best interest. We are going to clean up the pharmaceutical sector. It is an effort to implement standards. For example, a retailer who is buying drugs needs some space to have a discussion about the prescription, which is not possible if the whole sale section is operated in the same premises,” she said.
