Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority to regulate traditional medicines, new laboratory to be unveiled

Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority is going to regulate traditional medicines like any other drugs to lessen the negative impact these may leave on the people’s lives.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health received boards of directors and other staffs to assist the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority to implement its mandate. According to the Acting Director General of the body, Dr. Charles Karangwa, even traditional drugs will be tested and regulated before being consumed on the Rwandan market, as reported by The New Times.

“All licensed foods and drugs will be tested before being put on Rwandan market. Recently, we made an announcement to our various partners asking them to register their products in order to be able to be regulated before they are put on the market,” Karangwa opined.

The government has passed the law that sets up the umbrella of traditional healers in order to get all possible support to regulate what they do, he said. The body is soon going to launch its laboratory that fits international standards that will assist in carrying out the tests. “For now, we don’t have any industry manufacturing drugs in Rwanda, but there are some which soon will start operating inside the country. Until now, processed medicines we use come from outside. We have hope that in the coming years, we will have many drugs manufactured from here,” he added.

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