AFDA halts Genlide Azithromycin capsules

KABUL (Pajhwok): Laboratory test result of the Genlide Azithromycin capsules proved negative and the drug was no more useful, according to the Afghanistan Food and Drug Authority (AFDA) on Wednesday.

The amount of substance in each capsule was more than two times higher than its exact amount due to which it was halted, on the face of the table it was written 250mil but inside the capsule it was 524mil. This specific medicine is produced by Bio Gen Life Science Limited and its batch No. is 22k009.

The source said other medicines of the same company with different batch number may have positive results and good quality.

Doctor Javaid Hajhir, the spokesman of AFDA while talking to Pajhwok Afghan News advised all the pharmacy stores owners and traders to avoid selling and importing this specific medicine.

He said: “The monitoring teams of AFDA on daily basis monitor the drugs stores to avoid medicines that hold negative results after their examination at labs”.

He asked the people to be cooperative to AFDA and report about the existence of such medics and avoid purchasing such type of medicines.

Dr. Hajhir, about the harms of this medicine said: “The use of excessive amount of this medicine causes poisoning and has more side effects too, azithromycin has more bad side effects such as allergy, irregularity in heart beats, loss of taste and appetite”.

According to Hajhir, since the beginning of this year, AFDA has collected over 4,000 expired and low-quality spices of medicines from various pharmacies in Kabul, and they have been transferred to the quality control laboratory of the AFDA labs for quality control.

Aw/nh