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Two women fined over fake medicine

The Senior Magistrate Court in Mangochi has ordered Mary Julius Saidi,24 and Molly Kainga,34 to pay fines after they were convicted on six counts each for selling Gentamicin medicine as an HIV cure.

Magistrate Muhamad Chande ordered them to pay the sum of K2,450,000 each or in default serve 24 months imprisonment with hard labour.

The two were convicted for tampering with medicine labels, keeping medicines on unlicensed premises, dealing in medical supplies without a pharmaceutical license, advertising medicinal products without authorisation, disseminating misleading information about HIV and AIDS, and obtaining money through theft by trick.

The two women were caught by Police and officials from the Pharmacy and Medicines Regulatory Authority (PMRA) for allegedly promoting gentamicin injection as an HIV/AIDS remedy on social media platform known as TikTok. The women conspired in the production of a fake HIV drug known as Gammora by using Gentamicin injection. They managed to buy the prescription drug from drug stores within Mangochi and in the process removed original stickers and rebranded them with the Gammora label.

However, PMRA and the National AIDS Commission have expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence, pointing out that that the first count alone attracts a sentence of K10 million and a prison sentence of 10 years.

Spokesperson for PRMA Joseph Josiah says as an organisation, they will sit down to decide if they can appeal.

“The sentence is too little than we expected but we will have to sit down and look at the way forward to see if we can appeal” said Josiah.

Reported by Davie Umar
#MBCOnlineServices

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