Uganda Chemical Society

You want to know that even the current law, while NDA regulates herbal medicines, we don’t intervene for products that are at community setting (to be consumed by a small group), so yes, if you are going to manufacture drugs for your own consumption, no one will force a law on but if you are going to manufacture for the public, rules apply and that includes a qualified person supervising that process! The only qualified person to supervise drug manufacture is a pharmacist!

This National Drug and Public Health Authority Bill has been discussed widely; from holding stakeholder consultations at NDA, Attorney General’s Office and First Parliamentary Council and intensively by the Parliamentary Committee on Health (by the way that committee of parliament is chaired by a medical doctor and has competent medical professionals). Several stakeholders gave their views but also the global best practices as guided by WHO were put in consideration! Your good position was looked into and what would work was considered and what was not appropriate was left out! No one is reinventing the wheel here but streamlining the sector that is so critical to our survival as a society! There comes a time when right has to be done, this bill isn’t about Pharmacists or anyone but the Public Interest. The sector will need everyone but it must be guided and led by the right people! This is a global practice, we love to refer to progressing countries but we shy away from paying the price to get there! We are going to breakdown this document page by page as soon as the president signs it into law!