The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said common falsified products in the country include weight loss medication, sexual enhancers, and skin bleaching.
These medicines are regulated by the Medicines Act, meaning they require market authorisation, which some do not have.
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The products have been discovered through raids by the regulatory body and law enforcement.
The regulator’s CEO, Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, is speaking at the launch of the national action plan to combat the distribution of such products in the country.
She said the plans include three pillars: prevention, detection and response.
“These three pillars of our national action plan requires that we have a multi-stakeholder approach and to be able to do that, we need to ensure that we have proper governance, and guidance and practices in place on how we are going to cooperate and how we collaborate because we cannot focus on the country alone.”