KENYA – The Kenyan Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has updated a set of rules and regulations on pharmaceutical safety that will govern the online pharmacy service.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board is the Drug Regulatory Authority that regulates the Practice of Pharmacy together with the Manufacture and Trade in drugs and poisons in Kenya.

The Board mandate is to implement the necessary regulatory measures to achieve the highest standards of quality for all drugs, chemical substances and medical devices to ensure the protection of the consumer as envisaged by the laws regulating drugs in force in Kenya.

The new guidelines come at a time when online pharmacy in Kenya is growing at a fast rate and a good number of the population consume online services.

The proposed set of regulations seek to address the challenge in monitoring health services offered online as well as raise the standards of PPB rules to coordinate with the international standards.

Pharmacy and Poisons Board Western Region Head Dr Onesmus Kilonzo stressed that it was necessary to occasionally come-up with new sets of rules and regulations that govern the pharmaceutical sector with the advancement in technology.

“Consultation, selling of medicines and drugs, prescription, counselling and therapeutic management are among the services offered online by professionals,” outlined Dr. Onesmus Kilonzo.

In addition, the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) has declared that online pharmaceutical advertisements should be cleared by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board in order to agree with the proposed laws.

If the online advertisements are not keenly crafted it can lead to misuse of over-the-counter medicines or even prescription only medicines which have strict laws that guard their use so that they are not misused by the public.

The Pharmaceutical Society also emphasized that strict measures should be put on transportation of medication, clinical trials and pharmaceutical waste management.

The Chair of PSK Western Region Dr George Matimbai cautioned that there are no clear ways of managing medical waste while recommending that the expired and unused drugs should be dispensed appropriately.

“Expired and unused medicines are thrown away to only end up in the water we drink contaminating the environment and services we consume which can breed very resistant strains of bacterium that may not be treatable or curable in the near future,” he warned.

He urged the public to be vigilant about drug safety and submit the expired and unused medicines to the nearest medical facility as well as report any unexpected side effects of a drug.

Earlier, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board launched investigations into the incidence where Amoxicillin, a prescription-only drug, was being sold online on a leading e-commerce site to ensure appropriate regulatory action is taken against persons and parties involved.

The board is currently engaging with other regulatory agencies specifically the Communications Authority of Kenya for interventions on non-compliant heath products and technologies on e-commerce domains.

It also has guidelines on internet pharmacy declaring that all pharmacies in Kenya intending to sell medicines online to the public need to be registered with PPB and be on the list of registered online retail sellers in Kenya.

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