We’II soon launch e-pharmacy project - Bawumia

The Vice President has hinted of plans by the government to launch an E-Pharmacy project to address challenges faced by members of the public in accessing medicines.

He explained that several patients spend long hours searching for pharmacies where they can obtain prescribed medications, sometimes at very expensive prices.

Delivering a public lecture on Ghana’s digital economy, at the Ashesi University on Tuesday, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia revealed that the Pharmacy Council in collaboration with the private sector have been urged to digitize their activities.

“Basically, the digital E-Pharmacy platform will offer the opportunity to everyone through a mobile phone to upload your prescriptions and find out which pharmacies near you have the drugs. Secondly, you can compare the prices for the same drug offered by different pharmacies, so that you can buy from the lowest priced pharmacies.”

According to him, the project is currently being piloted with 45 pharmacies.

Persons who want to purchase drugs he added will be able to order through mobile money or GhQR (Scan and Pay) when the project is launched.

“The medicines will then be delivered to customers at home through courier service,” he added.

“The E-Pharmacy platform will also check fake or counterfeit drugs because the platform will be linked to the FDA, which will monitor thereal-timembers of all products in real time. Any drug for which the FDA does not have a batch number will be classified as fake,” the Vice President said.

“The E-Pharmacy is scheduled to be launched before the end of the year. I would like to thank the Pharmacy Council and the Ghanaian private partners for being very proactive and for tolerating my hounding,” he added.