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00:09 - The majority of pharmacists,
00:14 the majority of pharmacies are doing the right thing, Marlon.
00:18 But it just takes one pharmacy
00:21 to have 12 bottles of cough syrup
00:23 tainted with diethylene glycol, and babies will die.
00:28 It just takes one.
00:30 - The legal and ethical thing.
00:32 That's what Minister of Health, Terence Yarlsing, says
00:34 the Chemistry Food and Drug Division is doing
00:37 by seizing uncertified drugs which have entered the country.
00:41 - Why are we so concerned about it?
00:44 We cannot guarantee that something you pick up off the shelf
00:48 is not tainted with diethylene glycol.
00:51 You have there a press release,
00:53 which we sent out in October 2022.
00:56 - Yes.
00:56 - That's why I said this is not recent.
00:58 That speaks about products with diethylene glycol.
01:02 That is serious.
01:04 That cause kidney damage in children and they die.
01:08 And that is why the statements by Andrew Rahman
01:11 and Glenwyn Suchet were so concerning to me
01:14 because they should know better.
01:16 - Yarlsing is urging pharmacies to just do the right thing.
01:20 - Do not buy products where you can't get a invoice
01:24 listing the name of the supplier,
01:27 the address, the phone number, the VAT registration number.
01:32 But when we ask for invoices of these seized products,
01:36 we can't get an invoice.
01:38 So we can't trace it back.
01:40 It's so simple to protect the public.
01:42 - Some pharmacists had spoken out
01:43 against the Chemistry Food and Drug Division
01:46 following the latest multimillion dollar drug seizure,
01:50 complaining of delays in having their drugs checked
01:53 and certified.
01:54 - And that is false.
01:56 I put out a press release,
01:57 which you might've seen when they said that.
02:01 The drug approval process used to take years.
02:03 I inherited that.
02:05 We are now down to six months, which includes gasetan.
02:08 So that is wrong.
02:10 They are just looking for excuses
02:12 to maintain the status quo.
02:14 - Yarlsing says the ministry will soon be launching
02:16 a registry, which should alleviate much of the problem.
02:20 - We'll be publishing a registry
02:22 to eliminate that excuse.
02:24 And we'll be calling on all the stakeholders by next week
02:29 to have a first look at your registry.
02:31 That would include the pharmacies,
02:34 pharmacy board, pharmaceutical association,
02:37 all registered pharmaceutical distributors
02:43 to have a look at it.
02:44 Let's take it for a test run,
02:46 see where the deficiency are, fix it, and then launch it.
02:51 So that pharmacists can't have an excuse
02:53 of not knowing what is registered and what is not.
02:57 - Is that information going to be available
02:59 to members of the public?
03:00 - Of course it is.
03:01 Of course it is.
03:02 Yes. Yes.
03:04 - I am Renessa Cutting, and this was Health Watch.
03:07 (beeping)
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