The Head of the Public Affairs Unit of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), Numo Blafo III, has emphasized the need for persons engaged in the business of selling traditional medicines to get licensed.
He explained that there is the need for this to be done so that as a Council, they can help regulate and streamline the people who sell medicines of such nature to unsuspecting people in the public.
Numo Blafo III said this to the media during a routine enforcement exercise of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council aimed at ensuring that people who are selling herbal medicine without certification or license are identified, educated on the best practices, and in extreme cases, arrested.
Numo Blafo III stressed the need for the products that are sold on the streets to be FDA-certified.
“This exercise is actually aimed at clearing out the quacks within the system because there are a lot of reports of people selling things they claim to be herbal medicines. Sometimes, people use them and it doesn’t work and sometimes too, they are not sure of the potency or the efficacy of the products they are selling.
“We now have some products which are on shelves and those products should be authorized by the FDA. So, most of the time when we come, as the TMPC, we actually regulate the practice and the practitioners, so when we come and you’re not licensed to sell, we have to cause your arrest or educate you on the need for you to do the license and the certificate.
“But then when we also see that you are peddling certain items not certified by the FDA, then that is where we actually hold you and refer you to the FDA,” he explained.
