Illegal drugstores, clinics decline sharply in Cambodia

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.

Cambodia orders to crackdown on unlicensed pharmacies

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 22, 2010 (Xinhua) -- Phnom Penh authorities have given pharmacy owners until the end of this month to complete their license forms or face closure, local media reported on Monday.

Deputy governor Mann Chhoeun said that governor Kep Chuktema last week ordered all district governors to review the status of all pharmacies in their districts.

He added 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 Organization (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.

Illegal pharmacies face crack down in Cambodia

Saturday, February 20, 2010
Australaia Network News

Cambodia's municipal and provincial health officials are set to meet with owners of illegal pharmacies in Phnom Penh to demand that they apply for legitimate licences or face closure.

In January, the ministry of health gave a February deadline to the unlicensed pharmacies to either register or be closed.

There are 528 licensed pharmacies and 116 illegal ones in Phnom Penh alone.

Authorities say it's difficult to control and monitor the sale of expired drugs with unlicensed pharmacies operating.

Despite New Law, Fake Drugs, Illegal Stores Remain

By Seng Ratana, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
10 December 2007

Despite an amendment to the drug control law, Cambodia still has a high number of unauthorized pharmacies that sell illegal, fake and potentially dangerous drugs, officials said.

Health authorities from 24 cities and provinces across the country met in Phnom Penh Saturday to discuss the use of illegal drugs sold at illegal pharmacies around the country. The amendment has been in use since November, adding additional punishments for the sale of illegal or fake drugs.

Pren Noron, deputy chief of the Ministry of Health's Department of Food and Drugs, said the sale of illegal drugs was hard to curb, and, despite the ministry's hard work, complaints continue.

Between 20 percent and 30 percent of drugs on the market are not officially labeled by the Ministry of Health and could be dangerous, he said.

Most people only worried about the price of drugs, he said, making them susceptible to fakes.

"The use of illegal or false medicines causes a lot of danger. First, [people] waste money buying drugs of no quality that cannot cure their diseases, and can also cause health hazards if the drugs contain some dangerous substances that do not respond to the patient's illness," Pren Noron said. "For example, antibiotics, if we do not have enough doses of them, they can cause immunity in the bodies of the patients."

There are twice as many unauthorized pharmacies in Cambodia—about 2,000—as authorized, health officials said.

Phnom Penh has a better ratio, with about 486 legal pharmacies and 113 illegal.

"At the same time, some urban and provincial health departments do not pay attention and are irresponsible for private services, overlooking and ignoring reports of the ministry and failing to study the law," said Oeung Phirun, secretary of state for the Ministry of Health.

Health officials pointed to Kampong Cham province as a good model for the elimination of illegal drugstores; it managed to oust all non-licensed pharmacies in the provincial seat, despite a lack of funding from the central government.

More than 2,000 unlicensed pharmacies in Cambodia

Friday, December 07, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

An official from the Ministry of Health (MoH) told a local newspaper that, currently, there are more than 3,000 pharmacies in Cambodia, but among those, only 1,000 of them have proper licenses, and the other 2,000 do not have valid license. Prem Noron, deputy chairman of the MoH food and drugs department, told the Koh Santepheap newspaper about this issue while he was attending a seminar on drug management in Phnom Penh of 06 December. Prem Noron also indicated that, separately, in Phnom Penh city, there are more than 100 pharmacies which do not have license issued to them yet, and on this issue, the committee for fighting against fake drugs will take appropriate measures. He also said that, currently, the main problems faced by the MoH are: unlicensed pharmacy, the trafficking of fake and banned drugs, and contraband medicines. The MoH is also facing with criticisms leveled by the public saying this ministry does not pay attention to these issues.