- The guidelines on internet pharmacy developed by the PPB stipulates all pharmacies in Kenya intending to sell medicines online to be registered with PPB
- Amoxicillin is a penicillin antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, such as chest infections, including pneumonia.
Image: COURTESY
The Pharmacy and Poisons Board has started investigations into the incidence where Amoxicillin, a prescription-only drug, is being sold online on a leading e-commerce site.
The adverts for the drug have since been pulled down from the site after uproar and instructions from the board.
However, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board CEO Dr Fred Siyoi said investigations are underway to ensure appropriate regulatory action is taken against persons and parties involved.
“The board continues to engage with other regulatory agencies, specifically the Communications Authority of Kenya for interventions on non-compliant heath products and technologies [on] e-commerce domains,” Siyoi said.
“This poses a great risk to patient safety and promotes irrational use of HPTs."
The advertisement and sale of Amoxicillin on online sites has been seen as a concern from the public, raising questions on how Kenya will be able to fight the ever rising burden of antimicrobial resistance.
Amoxicillin is a penicillin antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, such as chest infections, including pneumonia, and is only available on prescription.
Unlike over the counter drugs, when used as prescribed by a doctor, prescription medicines can be helpful in treating many illnesses, but when these medicines are misused, they can have serious consequences.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya said even though sale on internet here to stay, the trend by online platforms to advertise and sell prescription medicines outside of the PPB rules and guidelines is a threat to national security.
The PSK chief executive Dr Lucas Nyabero on Thursday told the Star on the phone that interaction with a patient is key for the pharmacist as it helps get a lot of information that will help in giving the right drug in the right doses.
This, he said, includes understanding why the patient wants the drug, his lifestyle, the supplements they are using, what they eat and what time to be able to tell which drug will work best.
“[For] those who are selling it online, the question is, what information are they getting from the patient to ascertain that this is the right drug for the right time and effective,” Nyabero said.
“If whoever is on the other side of the counter does not find out why do you need it? Have you seen a doctor? How long are you going to take it?
"So that it is the accurate medication, the accurate dose, it is going to be for the accurate amount of time and it is going to be safe for you as the patient.”
The guidelines on internet pharmacy developed by the PPB stipulates all pharmacies in Kenya intending to sell medicines online to the public need to be registered with PPB and be on the list of registered online retail sellers in Kenya.
They also need to display on every page of their website offering medicines for sale, the Health Safety Code provided by the PPB.
Such a pharmacy must be physical premises, from where the sale and supply medicines and medical products takes place, that meets the requirements and are duly registered by PPB.
“The person carrying on the pharmacy business should ensure that there is an in-built mechanism to alert and thereby restrict excessive/multiple orders of medicines and to ensure Prescriptions for Controlled Drugs (CDs) are not supplied via the internet,” the guidelines says.
Similarly, the the pharmacist or pharmaceutical technologist must establish that the intended user is the person requesting the product.
It means sufficient information about the patient and the condition(s) being treated must be obtained at all times.
Resistance to antibiotics arises when infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites become resistant to drugs designed to treat them.
Experts in the recent past have raised alarm that treatment of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDs is at risk from the threat of resistance to antibiotics unless urgent action is taken to reverse the trend.
Without effective antimicrobials, the success of modern medicine in treating infections, including during major surgery and cancer chemotherapy, would be at increased risk.
The World Health Organisations warns that the cost of AMR to the economy is significant.
In addition to death and disability, prolonged illness results in longer hospital stays, the need for more expensive medicines and financial challenges for those impacted.
“The clinical pipeline of new antimicrobials is dry. Antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective as drug-resistance spreads globally leading to more difficult to treat infections and death. New antibacterials are urgently needed,” WHO said.
Just last week, a study released by Kemri found more than half of HIV-positive babies in Kenya are already resistant to one or more ARVs even before they begin treatment.
The study found that the infants had lower resistance to some of the ARVs known as the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.
(edited by Amol Awuor)