Regulating the Sale of Pharmaceutical Drugs in Cameroon: An Insight into the Institutional Mechanism

Abstract

In this era of globalisation, scientific development and the growing recognition and awareness of the direct link between drugs and human health, governments, scholars and consumers (patients) etc, are increasingly getting concerned about the quality and safety of the drugs sold and consumed whether as prevention or as cure to an ailment. These drugs sold both in the formal and informal sectors are sometimes wanting and dangerous to the health of the consumers (patients). It is for this reason that drug quality control aims at ensuring that pharmaceutical drugs that are sold for consumption does not only conform to national requirements so as to ensure the health of consumers but also to meet the safety and quality specifications of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) and consequently international standards. Such considerable standards or obligations are placed by regulatory authorities on drugs manufactured within the country as well as those imported.  Effective regulation of this activity is difficult as evident in the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where even licensed pharmaceutical companies were discovered to have been supplying and distributing fake chloroquine to wholesalers and consumers. This paper therefore seeks to investigate into the regulatory authorities that have been put in place to ensure effective control of pharmaceutical drugs in Cameroon by looking at their various roles. It is assumed that the institutions put in place can better guarantee effective control if the required resources are made available. While adopting the doctrinal and empirical methods of data collection it is discovered that informal pharmaceutical drugs dealing in Cameroon is also promoted by corrupt activities making effective regulation challenging.