Health Ministry replaces $742 million worth of expired drugs with $3 billion spent on medication

The government has replaced $742 million worth of expired drugs within the $3 billion recently spent to replenish Guyana’s supply of medicine according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony who also stated that the supply is expected to last around six months.
The expired drugs stored in the Ministry of Health’s medical warehouses were found by the PPP government upon taking office in August.

In his budget presentation in September, Dr. Anthony had stated that they discovered $742 million in expired items in the first eight months of this year and around $200 million worth of medical items is scheduled to expire by year-end. The Minister also stated that it would cost them another $3 million to dispense of the expired and unwanted medical supplies which would have to be done by the Materials Management Unit (MMU).

He had further disclosed that the MMU medical warehouse at Diamond was packed, with no space for the equipment to move around to do efficient stock taking and picking of the medicines. This was due to expired, obsolete and unusable items taking up most of the space.
“At the middle of August, about 60% of the space warehouse was taken up by expired medicines or medical supplies, or items deemed unfit for human use,” Dr. Anthony had said.
He also disclosed that a quick survey was done with the MMU and on August 5 it was found that there were 206 items of medicine and medical supply that were out of stock and 156 medical items had a zero stock level.

The Minister also stated that the money spent on drugs has fixed issues with HIV pharmaceuticals and kits. At the budget presentation, Anthony had said, “We have had problems with HIV medicines. Again, not only the medicines but kits were not available. So, we have now gotten back kits, [and] you will get kits if you don’t have them.”

Additionally, the Health Minister said that the government will be returning borrowed supplies that were given by Suriname and Brazil. The countries had given medical supplies to Guyana during the drug shortage period.
Despite the acquirement of new drugs the government is still sourcing medication to treat tuberculosis, according to the Minister.
He had also stated that the APNU+AFC government had not purchased drugs for tuberculosis patients, HIV patients and malaria patients.