Public gains access to drug database

Cit­i­zens can now check whether a med­ica­tion is legal­ly ap­proved in Trinidad and To­ba­go fol­low­ing the launch of the Min­istry of Health’s Reg­u­lat­ed Med­i­cines and Sub­stances Por­tal—an on­line data­base list­ing more than 10,000 reg­is­tered drugs.

The plat­form al­lows mem­bers of the pub­lic, phar­ma­cists, im­porters and oth­er stake­hold­ers to search for ap­proved med­i­cines and sub­stances, and view de­tails such as the reg­is­tered drug name, man­u­fac­tur­er and reg­u­la­to­ry cat­e­go­ry. Cat­e­gories in­clude an­tibi­otics, nar­cotics, con­trolled sub­stances, third-sched­ule drugs, vet­eri­nary prod­ucts and non-pre­scrip­tion med­i­cines.

Speak­ing at the launch, Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe said:

“To­geth­er, we must en­sure that the Drug Data­base re­mains an ac­tive tool, re­spon­sive to the evolv­ing needs of our health sec­tor and pro­tec­tive of the trust placed in us by the cit­i­zens and our stake­hold­ers. This launch is not just about tech­nol­o­gy, it is about con­fi­dence, trans­paren­cy and part­ner­ship.”

Ri­car­do Mo­hammed, pres­i­dent of the Phar­ma­cy Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go, wel­comed the ini­tia­tive and said the tool looked promis­ing in strength­en­ing drug reg­u­la­tion.

Glen­wayne Su­chit, pres­i­dent of the Pri­vate Phar­ma­cy Re­tail Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion, said he was “very proud and very hap­py to be a part of this ini­tia­tive” and pledged con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Deputy Comp­trol­ler of Cus­toms and Ex­cise Nisha Ali said the por­tal “would be of great ben­e­fit.”

The Min­istry cau­tioned that in­clu­sion in the data­base does not re­place med­ical ad­vice and urged cit­i­zens to con­sult qual­i­fied health­care providers be­fore us­ing any med­ica­tion.