• The committee has in the alternative asked Keter to consider withdrawing the Bill to allow for further consultations.
• The Health ministry opposed the Bill saying it would be counterproductive.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The Health Committee of the National Assembly has rejected a proposal by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter to prohibit the sale of medicine without a medical practitioner’s prescription.
The Bill, he said, was to “safeguard the health of all Kenyans and encourage them to always seek medical attention from qualified health practitioners.”
Targeting misuse of antibiotics, the MP wanted the prescription rule to apply to minor ailments, arguing that the sale of over the counter medicine has encouraged self-diagnosis of ailments.
“This endangers the lives of those who may consume harmful medication, suffer adverse reactions or even develop drug resistance owing to abuse of certain medications like antibiotics,” Keter said in his Bill’s memorandum of objects and reasons.
The Bill further set a Sh50,000 fine or three-year jail term for pharmacists convicted of violating the provision for a prescription from a registered health practitioner, dentist, or veterinary surgeon.
The team led by Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege in a report to Parliament has said the Pharmacy and Poisons (Amendment) Bill, 2021 – as proposed, will limit access to essential health products.
The committee has recommended that the Bill be deleted, taking a cue from the Ministry of Health, Kenya Pharmaceutical Association, Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, Mwalimu Muthisya, and Astone Ashioya.
“Should this provision be enacted into law, the implementation will limit access to essential health products and technologies and thus negate the gains made in the Universal Health Coverage,” the lawmakers said in the report tabled in Parliament.
In the alternative, the committee has asked Keter to consider withdrawing the Bill to allow for further consultations.
“The proposed deletion of the clauses by the committee seeks to allow the Pharmacy and Poisons Board to discharge its functions as provided in the law,” the committee said.
MPs enumerated the functions to include the scheduling and rescheduling of substances as required of a HPT system.
“The deletion is also necessary to guard against the requirement for prescriptions even in the case of general medicines that do not require a prescription of a medical practitioner,” MPs said.
Lawmakers observed that the cost of access to pharmaceutical services would increase if the is Bill is enacted into law, adding that not all Kenyans have the same level of access to pharmaceutical services.
“It would interfere with the acceptable standards of good pharmacy practise by imposing a prescription requirement for pharmacy-only medicines as well as over the counter medicines.”
The committee said the law would ‘overstretch the already weakened healthcare facilities, adding that some ailments are better managed at the community-based pharmacies.
The ministry, in a delegation led by acting Director General Patrick Amoth, opposed the Bill.
The director-general said was in the ministry’s interest that a balance is struck between access to healthcare products and protection of public health and safety.
“If this provision is enacted into law, implementation will limit access to essential HPTs and thus negate the gains made in the achievement of Universal Health Coverage,” Dr Amoth said.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya said the Bill provides no balance between access and business over safety and health.
“It is an affront to access to medicines. The Act gives the Pharmacy and Poisons Board powers to schedule medicines,” the society said in its memo to Parliament.
Muthisya, for his part, said: “The Bill is malicious and is a continuation of the business war with pharmacists.”
Ashioya told MPs that pharmacists are well equipped with knowledge on drugs and that the board regulates the pharmacy practice and does regular inspections to guarantee safety.
Presently, the law provides that nothing shall be deemed to make it unlawful for any person to sell non-poisonous drugs, provided the same is sold in the original condition.
There is equally no law requiring that a medicine seller be registered as a pharmacist with medicine stores only required to display a health safety code to show they are registered by the board.
Non-regulation has been blamed for the proliferation of counterfeit medicines sold in pharmacies.