The Pharmacy and Poisons Board has audited 278 chemists and closed 62 in the Western and Nyanza regions for non-compliance.
The board is currently conducting an audit of all pharmacies while monitoring whether the Covid-19 prevention and control measures are being implemented.
“The details of the closed chemists have been shared with the office of the regional commissioner in the two regions for enforcement of closure,” Julius Kaluai, who is leading the team, said.
Kaluai is the head Nairobi region and acting head of Good Distribution
Practice.
The exercise is currently ongoing in South and North Rift regions.
The board is conducting a crackdown on substandard alcohol-based hand sanitiser in the market.
This is after the Health ministry through the board carried out an analysis of alcohol-based sanitiser and surgical masks circulating in the Kenyan market between April 20 and June 30.
At least 130 different brands of ABHS in the market were analysed and those failing to meet the set standards were removed.
Preliminary results from the analysis of the first set of 80 samples found that 79 of them complied with the Kebs standard on alcohol concentration.
This accounts for 98.75 per cent of the samples analysed.
However, results on the second set found that only 13 out of 50 samples (26 per cent) complied.
Some of the failing products were found to contain methanol.
The board has been undertaking market surveillance of PPE in all counties starting with Western and Nyanza regions to monitor quality and implement regulatory actions.
The board also carries out studies to monitor previously unreported adverse effects of medicines and medical products after they have been licensed for use.
Health CAS Rashid Aman said the PPB is also conducting countrywide pharmacovigilance of health products and technologies used in the management of the virus to ensure safety of Covid-19 patients during their course of treatment.
During a past event, Aman noted that the data obtained in this retrospective and prospective study will assist the country in linking the outcomes to medications, patients’ factors such as comorbidity, probability of getting adverse drug reactions or events among others during the course of treatment of the disease.
“This data will contribute greatly to the body of knowledge in the management of the pandemic,” he said.
“The quality of compliance of specifications of HPTs used in the management of Covid-19 such as sanitiser and PPE and medicines is critical in this fight against the pandemic.”
Early this month, the boards unveiled a team to strengthen marketing surveillance in the country.
The Kenya National Technical Working Group on Pharmacovigilance and Post-Marketing Surveillance was inaugurated by Aman.
Edited by Henry Makori