The Executive Director/Secretary of the National Drug Authority (NDA) Dr David Nahamya together with some of his officials on Wednesday, met with Buganda Kingdom Katikkiro (Prime Minister) Charles Peter Mayiga to discuss how best the two institutions can collaborate to regulate herbal medicines.
Speaking during the meeting, Dr Nahamya said that the authority recognizes the key role the Buganda Kingdom plays in mobilizing her communities to support issues of national importance and that is why it would be good if they work together to find ways of sensitising herbal medicine innovators and to curb the abuse of drugs and substances.
“This is why we would like to partner with you to address some of the challenges we face such as irrational drug use, drug and substance abuse, drug hawking, unauthorized herbal medicine with unethical drug promotions which all threaten public health,” Dr Nahamya said.
“Through you, we would like to have Ssabasajja Kabaka wa Buganda be a champion in promoting the safe use of drugs. Having His Majesty, the Kabaka as a Safe Drug Use Champion would be invaluable in our cause given his significant unifying and fatherly role in guiding people. This would greatly help NDA achieve its mandate of assuring that Buganda people and the entire population of Uganda have access to safe, quality and efficacious medicines, both traditional and conventional.”
As a way of sealing their collaboration, NDA asked to establish a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Kingdom that will enable them to officially work together to improve the quality of herbal medicines in Buganda and Uganda at large.
“With a partnership in place, NDA can work with your Ministry of Culture and any other delegated teams to undertake pieces of training for herbalists, support those involved in herbal medicines to access technical support on compliance to current good manufacturing practices and assist herbal drugs manufacturers/dealers in having notified products on the market which will enhance their knowledge and quality of their products.”
Dr Nahamya also revealed that according to the ministry of health, over 60 per cent of the Ugandan population use herbal medicine as their first remedy, and to promote and integrate traditional medical practices in the health system, National Drug Authority came up with measures of ensuring the safety and efficacy of all herbal medicine on the Ugandan market because the more herbals become profitable is the more wrong elements can easily take advantage of the unsuspecting population by hawking unsafe and ineffective medicines.
“NDA would also like to work with the kingdom by providing extensive technical support and information in the fight against drug hawking and drug misuse including all the necessary information and educational materials needed for the campaign against drug hawking and illegal drug promotions,” he said.
Owek. Mayiga welcomed NDA’s move and said that there is a great need to sensitize the innovators but not discourage them.
“Your coming here is very important. It will help to direct and guide these herbal medicine innovators. It should not be made to discourage the traditional medicine people because we need to uplift them and I think they can listen to us. It will be good to encourage them to work with an agency like NDA so that their knowledge is enhanced according to national and international standards.”
In the same space, he welcomed the proposal of the MOU between the NDA and the kingdom.
“We have five core values in our Kingdom which encompasses everything. The fourth core value is working tirelessly. However, working tirelessly goes hand in hand with issues of health because nobody can work when is sick. No country or community can develop with the majority of sick people. Therefore, the issue of health is very important, having NDA here is such a great opportunity.”
Owek Mayiga also expressed concern about the escalating number of drug shops with unqualified pharmacists who sell drugs to communities under poor prescriptions.
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