FDA to appeal High Court decision on Tobinco Pharmaceuticals case

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) says it will appeal the recent High Court deci­sion against the authority.

In a statement signed by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Delese Darko, the FDA says it disagrees with the GH¢93 mil­lion the court awarded as cost to Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

On May 29, 2024, the High Court delivered a ruling and made consequential orders against the FDA for destroying pharmaceutical products belong­ing to Tobinco.

The statement debunked some media reports suggesting that the authority’s inaction occa­sioned the loss.

It said although the suit filed by Tobinco against the FDA stems from actions taken in 2013 by then CEO, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, “the current leadership of the organisation have provided a defence to the courts at all materials times.”

“The action initiated against the FDA in 2019, has consistently and vigorously been to by the FDA,” the statement added.

In 2014, the FDA confiscated pharmaceutical products im­ported to Ghana by Tobinco on grounds that the products were unwholesome.

In 2019, Tobinco sued FDA and asked the court to award cost against the FDA and declare its action as unlawful.

Tobinco, the plaintiff judge­ment creditor in the suit was represented by Mr Philip Addi­son, of Addison Bright Sloane, Barristers, SOLICITORS, Con­sultants, Accra.

In reaching a decision, the court presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, declared that the wanton destruction of Tobinco’s unexpired products without obtaining any order from court was unlawful.

The court again declared that “the unlawful lockup of Tobin­co’s warehouses by the FDA and bad media publicity by the FDA resulted in the massive expiration of Tobinco’s products between June 2014 and August 2015.”

Justice Kocuvie-Tay further declared that the order by the FDA prohibiting the sale of Tobinco’s products without ob­taining an Executive Instrument from the Minister of Health was unlawful.

She declared that the actions of the FDA and its CEO in ban­ning Bliss GVS Pharma Limited from importing drugs into Ghana without the issuance of an Ex­ecutive Instrument (E.I.) by the minister

 BY MALIK SULLEMANA

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