Over 470,000 units of unauthorised or expired drugs were confiscated during a crackdown on unlicensed medical facilities in Siem Reap City this week, according to provincial police.
The inspections of health facilities started on Friday with city economic police working with the provincial health department to check through any pharmacies and private clinics in the city, said Soeun Sem, chief of the Siem Reap Economic Police
“All drugs seized were either unlicensed by the Ministry of Health, or had expired. In total, we confiscated around 474,156 unlicensed and expired drugs.” he said.
“Starting from Friday until now, we checked on three places: one was a Chinese clinic and two were small stores that sell drugs. We found out about 30,000 [units of] unlicensed drugs in that Chinese clinic named Ya Shin owned by a Chinese woman. All the drugs in this clinic were imported from China.”
Ya Shin clinic was shut down by authorities after the shop was cleared of the illegal drugs, police said.
All of the pharmaceuticals confiscated by the officials are currently being stored at the Siem Reap Provincial Health Department waiting to be burned, according to the economic police.
The crackdown on unregistered and expired medicines will continue throughout the whole city, said Sem, who did not specify how long the inspections would go on.
The Ministry of Health has been pushing for the closure of unlicensed medical facilities since Battambang’s Sangke district was struck by a mass HIV outbreak after an unlicensed doctor reportedly reused needles on multiple patients.
Provincial health departments were directed last month to take immediate measures against any illegal facilities.
