Wednesday, December 22, 2010
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 22, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Unlicensed drugstores and clinics in Cambodia have declined sharply in 2010, showed the statistics from the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
Unlicensed pharmacies have declined to 111 in December this year from 1,420 at the end of 2009, according to the statistics released at the annual conference on the elimination of fake medicines and unlicensed pharmacies and health services.
And unlicensed clinics have dropped to 305 in December this year from 1,055 at the end of last year.
The statistics showed that currently, Cambodia has 1,555 licensed pharmacies, up from only 1,389 at the end of last year, and 4,317 licensed clinics, up from 2,700 at the end of last year.
Those clinics are general health care, dental care, maternal healthcare and medical laboratories.
"It's our success to cut down the great number of unlicensed pharmacies and health services sharply this year," Heng Bunkeat, chief of the department of drugs, food, medical equipment and cosmetics at the Ministry of Health, said at the conference.
He said that the unlicensed pharmacies and clinics were the hub of the distribution of counterfeit medicines.
"The reduction of unlicensed drugstores and health services will lead to the reduction of the circulation of fake medicine," he said.
Fake and inferior medicines cost much money and claimed many lives every year in Cambodia, said Heng Taykry, secretary of state for the Ministry of Health and deputy director of the inter- ministerial committee on eliminating counterfeit medicines and unlicensed health services.
"The Ministry of Health is committed to eliminating fake, inferior medicines and unlicensed heath services, and perpetrators will be subjected to administrative measures and legal action," he said.
Up to now, 9,462 types of medicines have been registered in Cambodia, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment