Pharmacists, vets fight over proposals to regulate drugs
Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) Chairman Louis Machogu.
What you need to know:
- Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya Chairman Louis Machogu on Tuesday said that the Bill, if passed into law, will boost standards of drug regulation.
- Machogu explained that the regulation of medicines requires technical expertise, which is possessed by pharmacists while veterinarians are trained in physiology.
Pharmacists are embroiled in a tussle with veterinary doctors over the proposed regulation of veterinary medicines as contained in the Kenya Drugs Authority Bill, 2022.
The Bill, which is currently in Parliament for its second reading, proposes, among other things, to merge the regulation of animal and human medicines under a new authority that will replace the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
It is a reincarnation of the aborted Kenya Food and Drug Authority Bill, 2019. Pharmacists have supported proposals to form the Kenya Drug Authority (KDA).
Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) Chairman Louis Machogu told Nation on Tuesday that the Bill, if passed into law, will boost standards of drug regulation.
“A single and stronger regulatory authority will mean lower costs for users, safety of regulated medicines and an expanded market. It will also ensure that the authority achieves World Health Organisation Maturity Level 3 status for locally manufactured medicines. This means that locally manufactured medicines will be exported, supporting more jobs, taxes, foreign exchange inflows and knowledge and skills transfer," he said.
Regulation of medicines
Machogu further explained that the regulation of medicines requires technical expertise, which is possessed by pharmacists while veterinarians are trained in physiology.
“They [veterinary doctors] are not trained in pharmaceutical chemistry or pharmaceutical analysis. All that is done by pharmacists,” he said.
In 2011, a formal and legal divorce between pharmacists and veterinarians became necessary with the passing of the Veterinary Surgeons Paraprofessionals Act, creating the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The functions of veterinary surgeons were transferred from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives.
Pharmaceutical practice
However, the new law requires that the two professions work under one roof. Dr Maurice Ogutu, the technical chairman of the Veterinary Inputs Suppliers Association of Kenya, told Nation that there was no gap in the law in terms of regulating veterinarians and their activities.
"The current bill wants to take away veterinary drugs from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Health. We do not have veterinarians in the Ministry of Health because veterinary diseases are dealt with by veterinary surgeons and veterinary specialists,” he said.
“The veterinary drugs section of the bill should be removed," he added.
MPs had recommended in September that the veterinary provisions be removed from the Bill as the two entities are already regulated separately.
However, the PSK had complained that the changes proposed by the committee would water down pharmaceutical practice in the country. Dr Ogutu insists there will be operational problems if the bill becomes law.
