DILI, 30 june 2022 (TATOLI) – The Ministry of Health has recently issued an order to suspend the administration and sale of dexamethasone and simvastatin from India.
“We no longer have packages of these drugs in our pharmacy. We currently only have medication from Indonesia and Canada,” said the head of the pharmaceutical unit of the Formosa Health Center, Carolina Soares dos Santos, in Dili.
She said at the Formosa Health Center, every month, they administer four thousand packages of simvastatin to patients with high cholesterol and a thousand of dexamethasone for the treatment of allergies.
Also, the Clinical Director of the Guido Valadares National Hospital (HNGV), Marcelino Correia, said that he had already asked the doctors to suspend the administration of these two drugs following the order of the Ministry of Health.
“These drugs from India will be destroyed and we will continue to administer those from Indonesia,” she stressed.
Timorese Health Minister Odete Belo had earlier said that the ministry would cooperate with Thailand and Indonesia to conduct drug testing to find out the quality of these drugs.
“We continue to cooperate with Australia, but we will also do so with Indonesia and Thailand for testing the quality of medicines,” he said.
To ensure therapeutic goods are of an acceptable standard, last year, the Ministry of Health signed an agreement with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) laboratory to test and assess the quality of several types of medicines, including insulin, dexamethasone amoxicillin, and simvastatin.
When asked about the results of the testing of these medicines in the Australian laboratory, Minister Belo said dexamethasone and simvastatin from India demonstrated poor quality.
“The result of this test shows that the National Directorate of Pharmacies and Medicines and SAMES should review the documents of the selected pharmaceutical companies that supply such medication to Timor-Leste,” she concluded.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
