Diamond drug bond plagued by unstable electricity

–  poses health risk to patients

The improper storage of pharmaceuticals at the Diamond drug bond could not only lead to millions of dollars in losses owing to spoilage but a major health risk to patients.
It was recently revealed by the warehouse manager, Silhouette Craig, that the East Bank Demerara facility currently had a malfunctioning refrigerator and was faced with frequent bouts of unstable electricity.

Back in 2016, the Government opted to rent what was basically a house on Sussex Street, Charlestown, Georgetown owned by a party affiliate to store the country’s pharmaceuticals at an exorbitant rate of $12.5 million per month.
While the facility is less than 10,000 square feet, the NEW GPC INC drug storage bond, which was used prior to the new rental, was 70,000 square feet and provided cold storage free of cost using its walk-in cold room to the Public Health Ministry.
The primary electricity supply for the NEW GPC is a generator, since the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc is unreliable and there is a second backup generator, providing redundancy, in the event the primary fails.
Craig told sections of the media that the Diamond walk-in fridge was not filled because there was always a constant need to relocate drugs between the Diamond bond and the Sussex Street bond.
It has been recognised that once an item has gone off the cold chain for a certain amount of time, it should be rejected on account of the detrimental health risks it poses to patients.
With the current issues facing the Diamond bond, the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) has the authority to reject or seize all items that have been exposed to higher than prescribed temperatures immediately and prevent them from entering the health system.
Some may argue that there is no point in sending such items for testing since it is a difficult and expensive scientific endeavour.
However, the risk to patients in using a cold chain item which was improperly stored is enormous, as it can cause serious injuries or even death.
All of this could have been avoided if the Public Health Ministry had continued to utilise NEW GPC’s cold room facilities.
The use of fridges, like in the case of Diamond, is not ideal, since they are still subjected to blackouts and each would have to be monitored and logged separately to ensure the cold chain remains intact.
In December 2016, the GA-FDD had seized thousands of kidney drugs, after it was found that the drugs were being stored at temperatures between 17 and 25 degrees Celsius and not the 2 to 8 degrees Celsius recommended by the manufacturers.
The cold chain begins with the manufacturer and ends with the patient. Products that have not been handled according to the conditions set by the manufacturer are considered to be unsafe for use as quality and effectiveness may have been compromised.
Safe temperature and humidity ranges for products vary according to the conditions required to ensure their continued quality. All temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical and biologic products are at risk of damage if handled improperly. The conditions for the transportation and storage of drug products by wholesalers are set by the GA-FDD.