The government of Uganda through the National Drug Authority (NDA) has closed 58 pharmacies over failure to acquire regulatory approval, a move that has left hundreds jobless.
In a statement issued on June19, 2017, NDA said that the licensing of drug outlets for 2017 had ended and warned the public against dealing with pharmacies that are unlicensed.
“The public is hereby warned to desist from buying medicines from unlicensed pharmaceutical outlets…,” the statement read in part, adding the said pharmacies have since been instructed to cease operations. However, Business Focus understands that some of the affected pharmacies are still operating.
Some proprietors of the unlicensed pharmacies say NDA was unfair to them during the licensing process. 31 of the closed pharmacies are in the Central region-mostly Kampala, four in Eastern region, five in Northern, six in South Eastern region and 12 in South Western region.
The following link contains a list of the unlicensed pharmacies:
http://nda.or.ug/files/downloads/Photo%20of%20Unlicensed%20pharmacies(1).PNG
