Monday, 22 February 2010

Cambodia Orders To Crackdown On Unlicensed Pharmacies

via CAAI News Media

PHNOM PENH, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- All unlicensed pharmacies in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh are urged to complete their license forms by end of this month or face closure, China's Xinhua news agency reported Monday, citing local media.

Last week, governor Kep Chuktema ordered all district governors to review the status of all pharmacies in their districts.

Citing Deputy governor Mann Chhoeun, Xinhua said that City Hall has long urged pharmacists to complete required forms before starting a pharmacy but many had failed to do so.

"It is time that they have to respect the rule of law, and we have to develop our city," he was quoted by The Cambodia Daily as saying.

Chhoeun said that there were 644 pharmacies in the capital, 116 of which had not completed the required paperwork.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) officials, about 2.5 percent of all medicine sold in Cambodia is counterfeit or substandard, and a major challenge for the government is to inspect the thousands of unlawful medicine outlets in Cambodia, the daily said.

William Mfuko, WHO technical officer for essential medicines, was quoted as saying that the challenge lay in upgrading the unlicensed pharmacies through training, quality control and regulation rather than in cracking down, which was unlikely to work as high demand for medicine was creating the unlicensed shops.

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