10,038 products granted licences under PLS – FDA

 The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Dr Delese Darko, has announced that the agency has granted licenses to a total of 10,038 products under the Pro­gressive Licensing Scheme (PLS) since its launch in 2019.

Also, she noted that the FDA had registered 1,900 facilities under the scheme.

The PLS, which was established by the FDA in 2019, aims to improve the quality, safety, wholesomeness, and efficacy of products regulated by the FDA, thereby promoting public health and sustainable development.

Speaking at a workshop in Accra last Wednesday, Dr Darko said the PLS was established to sup­port the government industriali­sation agenda.

 In 2020, the FDA Boss said under the PLS programme, about 80 small business owners were trained and 2,400 products were registered.

She indicated that the PLS being implemented by FDA was meant to improve the safety and quality of products from small busi­nesses in the food and cosmetics industries.

“The PLS is a three-stage licens­ing system that uses a risk-based approach to ensure safe food production, it starts with a pink license that is issued to a food manufacturing facility that is 30 to 44 per cent compliant with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP),” Dr Darko stated.

Touching the capacity building workshop, Dr Darko highlighted that the programme was organ­ised by FDA in partnership with Ghana Enterprises Agency.

So far, she said, more than 80 start-ups and owners of small-scale companies had been trained in GMP.

Dr Darko further clarified that the purpose of the workshop was to raise awareness about PLS, enabling start-ups to leverage its benefits, as well as to assist them in the licensing application pro­cess through the programme.

The FDA Boss also noted that more than 70 per cent of phar­maceutical products used in the country were imported.

Moreover, she stated that there was the need for the government and private sector to invest more in the manufacture of the phar­maceutical products locally.

“It is our goal in the next few years that, 70 per cent of the products that we use in this coun­try will be manufactured locally and probably only 30 per cent will be coming in from different coun­tries,” Dr Darko underlined.

 BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA