00:00The power to grant special import licenses for drugs is by law reserved solely for the Minister of Health.
00:07So the Minister has the ultimate regulatory power in granting registration, in granting import permit for all three classes of
00:26drugs.
00:27But information emerging from Internal Health Ministry emails paint a different picture.
00:33Data linked to one chief medical officer shows what the Public Administration Appropriations Committee describes as an unusually high volume
00:43of requests for special approvals.
00:46Dr. Roshan Parasram, 2,440 emails concerning special permission.
00:54Dr. Harry Smith, 4, Dr. Roger Ramjohn, 0, Mr. Brian Amor, 6.
01:03Committee Chairman Jagdao Singh is now questioning whether that authority was effectively transferred and if so, by whom.
01:10It appears to me there's a curious confluence of circumstances that from a very rarely used power, a literal administrative
01:23mushroom cloud developed by 2017.
01:26Special import licenses are intended for urgent life-saving drugs, not routine items.
01:32There is evidence that special permission was used to import Barajan Redoxal and Philips Milikov Magnesia.
01:41And this three.
01:42And this three.
01:44Correct.
01:44Amongst others.
01:45It's just too numerous to go through.
01:48Chairman Singh says the situation raises deeper concerns, particularly when special permits are used for drugs already registered in Trinidad
01:56and Tobago.
01:57It makes it worse because it would mean that the entire regulatory and scientific oversight process is being avoided by
02:12the special permit.
02:14And the practice may not only be questionable, but previously flagged as unlawful.
02:21I remember Ms. Rob Chan, who is a former legal advisor, at that point in time, commented to the DAC,
02:29because she was a member of the DAC at that point in time, that special permission was illegal and ultra
02:34-virus to the Food and Drug Act.
02:37Hence, all possible avenues to get the product re-registered was done.
02:43Public servants also testified that instructions were given to fast-track the process.
02:49Yesterday, I was in office at the time, and I heard the rewards, and I saw it myself, that what
02:54was done, in a particular manner, that's not in line with the regulations of the Food and Drug Act.
03:02The committee is expected to continue its examination into how and why these approvals were granted and whether established laws
03:10were bypassed in the process.
03:13Urvishitawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
03:17Urvishitawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
03:18Urvishitawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
03:18Urvishitawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
03:18Urvishitawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
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