Investigation links supplier to falsified medicines

One of Malawi’s largest pharmaceutical suppliers has allegedly repeatedly supplied expired and falsified medicines to public hospitals for more than a decade, a Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) investigation has found. According to GroundUp, documents show that a company operating as GPSL Wholesale Ltd is the same company previously going as Galaxy Pharmaceuticals and Surgical Logistics, which was shut down in 2013 for supplying faulty antibiotics linked to infant deaths at Mzimba District Hospital. The company recast itself as GPSL Wholesale (GPSL) in 2019 and once again allegedly engaged in selling defective medication. It is still operating. The company has refused to respond to questions. Documents obtained by PIJ show that expired insulin stored at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre and awaiting destruction, was stolen and redistributed to state hospitals. A pharmacy technician at the hospital, Michael Lemeka, allegedly spent weeks smuggling insulin vials out of the hospital in his laptop bag. Lemeka then allegedly contacted an illicit drug broker, Habib Goba, who was previously linked to the trade in stolen public medicines. GPSL allegedly bought the stolen insulin and entered it into its books as if it had been legitimately sourced. Under Malawian law, pharmaceutical wholesalers can only procure medicines from registered international suppliers. Documents trace how the expired insulin was then relabelled. The drugs were distributed to hospitals across the country, including Mzuzu, Kamuzu and Zomba Central hospitals. Ironically, nearly 1 000 vials were supplied back to QECH, the hospital from which they had been stolen.