By Samira Larbie
Accra, Jan. 17, GNA – Mr William Ofori, Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana’s E-Pharmacy Implementation Committee, says the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana’s (PSGH) representation on the Pharmacy Council ePharmacy Committee will help it achieve its objectives.
The Ghana National Electronic Pharmacy Platform (NEPP) or ePharmacy platform, the first of its kind on a national scale in Africa, is a digital means of serving prescriptions and buying medication online.
Mr Ofori, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the PSGH’s representation on the regulators committee was important as it would always ensure the benefit of the consumer and as well enable the platform to achieve its intended purpose.
The national ePharmacy platform seeks to regulate online pharmaceutical services, improve availability and make access to quality and authentic medication easy by making an order through the ePharmacy app,or website and have the drug delivered at the requested location.
Mr Ofori explained that the concept of an ePharmacy platform was conceived in 2019 during the Annual General Meeting of the Pharmaceutical society of Ghana, after Vice President Bawumia challenged the Pharmacy Council to take steps in ensuring that Pharmacy services were digitized through the introduction of a national-scale e-pharmacy platform.
The platform, which was launched in 2022 after formulating the necessary policy and framework, came into existence in 2023 and is expected to dispense medication to patients in a trustworthy manner.
He said this was a platform for legal e-commerce, selling pharmaceutical products and moving forward would not stand alone but other systems in e-health would be interconnected.
Mr Ofori said just as the platform served prescribed medicines it was also open for people who needed to purchase drugs without a prescription and had the capability of being used to process insurance claims in the future. “The policy and framework of the platform will also be updated over time to reflect current situations,” he added.
The ePharmacy Implementation Committee Chairman thus urged pharmacies as well as potential technology and service providers who want to do E-commerce in the pharmacy space to register with the Pharmacy Council and be get on the platform.
He assured Ghanaians that the ePharmacy platform had the best pricing range to ensure a win-win situation for both the consumer and the pharmaceutical companies.
GNA