They face a fine of 300,000 each and a prison sentence of up to five years. These 18 pharmacies are those that were checked by the Ministry of Commerce inspectors for offering the drug for sale without the approval of the Price Fixing Unit (PFU).
According to the raids by officers of the Ministry of Trade, it is not yet a question of counterfeit Molnupiravir generics in circulation, but of illegal sale of a product whose price is not yet fixed by the PFU. The importer cannot bring the product without producing a Certificate of Analysis for an import permit from the Ministry of Health and the product cannot be marketed without the approval of the Price Fixing Unit (PFU), which calculates the maximum margin at 11.6% for importers, 21.6% for pharmacy-dealers and 2% for transport, i.e. approximately 35%.
Trident Healthcare Ltd is currently the only authorised
Trident Healthcare Ltd is the only importer that has had approval since December 08 to market generic Movfor at Rs 2,302.07 for the 40-capsule pack. The pharmacies that receive these drugs distributed by Scott Health Lab, are allowed to market them at Rs 57.55 per unit since December 10. Thus, at present, only the drugs imported by Trident Healthcare Ltd, i.e. Movfor, are legally marketable. We understand that drugs under other generic names are available for sale in the private market since Monday, December 13.
Rs 300,000 fine, PAM alerted
The officers of the Ministry of Commerce checked 110 pharmacies in the country before coming out with these 18 that are illegally marketing these generics of Molnupiravir. These fines were served in accordance with the provisions of the Maximum Recommended Retail Price of the Consumer Protection (Price and Supplies Control) Act 1998. The question remains, are these pharmacies entirely to blame? Were they aware that they were marketing illegally? Shouldn’t the penalty fall on the distributors and importers? The Pharmaceutical Association of Mauritius (PAM) is alerted by this case and its members met in the late Wednesday 15th December afternoon to look into the matter. “We have received numerous grievances. There are several grey areas on which we need to shed more light on. This fine is too heavy for retail pharmacies. We will ask the Pharmacy Board to find a way to help them,” says President Yamini Moothoosamy.
Pharmaceutical products closely monitored by the authorities
In addition, the marketing of pharmaceutical and medical products is under the spotlight. ICAC is going through every page of the hundreds of documents seized on Tuesday, 14 December from the Ministries of Health and Trade, Customs and CPN Distributors Ltd. From the MRA, it was announced that for the period January to November 2011, 1.4 million worth of counterfeit pharmaceuticals were seized, mostly non-compliant masks and fake antigenic tests and drugs among others.
