Maputo, 5 May (AIM) – Mozambican authorities seized, in the first quarter, 101,600 different types of medicines stolen from the National Health System (SNS).
According to Cassiano João, spokesperson for the country’s Medicine Regulatory Authority (Anarme), cited by the Portuguese News Agency (LUSA), two individuals were arrested for alleged embezzlement, out of a total of 11 involved in the cases. One of the arrestees is a health professional.
The medicines had been sold to private pharmacies and other authorized resellers.
João explained that from the inspection of 133 pharmacies, clinics, and supermarkets, “about a thousand drugs were sexual stimulants, in a list that also includes metformin, antimalarials, and falsified injectable bupivacaine.”
“It is necessary to avoid buying medications outside of unauthorized locations, avoid acquiring products sold online, and avoid acquiring products without a prescription from a health professional”, he said.
Last January, the authorities denounced the theft of anti-malarial drugs worth 42 million meticais (about 657,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the central medical stores of the National Health Service in Maputo province.
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