The Ministry of Public Health Shares Its Performance on Controlling and Improving the Quality of Medicines and Food Products
2025-04-30
The Ministry of Public Health Shares Its Performance on Controlling and Improving the Quality of Medicines and Food Products
Today, on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, during a press conference at the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC), the Ministry of Public Health provided information on its performance on controlling and improving the quality of medicines and food products.
During the press conference, the Public Health Minister, Mowlawi Noor Jalal Jalali said that we appreciate the donor nations and organizations that assist in health sections. Their aid is effective in health improving of mothers, children, and vulnerable persons in the society. Therefore, we emphasize that humanitarian assistance should be managed transparently and in accordance with society's needs, as well as, the poor management results in wasted resources and reduced aid effectiveness.
The Minister stated that the World Food Program (WFP) has imported approximately 6750 tons of substandard food under the name of “supper cereal” to Afghanistan, which does not meet quality standards and is not useable. Likewise, the WFP also imported 55 tons of premix, which were transferred without considering capacities, expired, and got wasted. It is obvious that aid has been wasted. Additionally, he said that The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has imported 650 tuberculosis diagnostic kits that the documents did not match the actual materials, and some of them were expired. The organization has accepted this mistake. Based on the information, just in over a past year, more than 52000 imported medicines have received market approval and 5249 health facilities have been monitored.
According to the ministry, over the past 6 months, 139 tons of poor-quality medicines and health products have been destroyed principally, and approximately 70 thousand samples for monitoring the quality have been reviewed. Moreover, regulations have been enforced to prevent medicine trafficking, and coordination with customs has improved. In the past month alone, 10 containers of trafficked medicine have been returned from Kandahar customs.
Based on the officials of the ministry, the international GMP standard is being implemented for the import, production, and registration of medicines. So far, 123 foreign corporations and 260 medicines have been registered, and support for domestic production has increased. Extensive measures have been taken in the area of food safety as well. More than 18000 imported shipments have been approved for the market, while 280 shipments have been rejected due to negative results.
The officials of the ministry at the end of the press conference emphasized that our goal is that only medicines and effective, high-quality, and safe food reach the people of Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, all types of assistance must be implemented through transparent management.
