New Legislation in the Works on Pharmaceutical Safety  

At Thursday’s cabinet meeting, the Government of Belize decided to scrap the old Food and Drug registration, licensing, and inspection regulations. They’re bringing in new, modernized laws to better oversee pharmaceutical products and make sure the medicines Belizeans use are safe and effective. Prime Minister John Briceño was asked how they’re ensuring the safety of pharmaceuticals without a drug inspector in the Ministry of Health. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think that the minister is working on that. We’re supposed to be appointing one soon But that’s the job not just of one person. It’s a department. And if you notice we have not had lately Issues that bad drugs come in like before with another previous government. We had a lot of bad drugs. We had, unfortunately, a person that I knew, a few million dollars plus of his goods were rejected because he was not meeting the standards. So it’s not just a person, but it’s a department we have strengthened department to ensure that the drugs that we put on the shelf are the ones that be able to meet the standards and to help our people. As opposed to, I remember, coming to 2020, I have a friend that was taking pressure pills, and he said, he said that the pressure pills weren’t helping him. And so he went to see a doctor, the doctor said, just take double, when you should not take double because the problem is that they’re not [working], so we’re dealing with it and we’re handling it and it’s not going to be a problem.”