Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sued 25 drug stores for allegedly selling illegal, substandard medicine between January and July, 2017, according to a report in the City News Daily yesterday.
In 2016, FDA took action against 99 drug stores.
“We have no judicial power to punish unlawful pharmacies. We can only take them to court,” said FDA Director- General Dr. Than Htut. “It is the courts that mete out punishment of up to three to four years in prison.”
The FDA is taking action in two phases when they find pharmacies acting illegally: First, the FDA bans distribution of illegal medicine and revokes the pharmacies’ licences. Second, the FDA prosecutes pharmacists if they find a large amount of illegal pharmaceuticals. The FDA plans to expand its enforcement actions next year by establishing a database to trace illegal pharmaceuticals to their sources.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar
