The Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) says it will advise in due course, on whether it will prosecute Chrismar Earthmoving Equipment and its directors for imported and unauthorized 10, 000 doses of suspected Covid-19 vaccines into the country.
ZAMRA on Tuesday announced that it had intercepted and destroyed a consignment of 10,000 doses worth US$150, 000 of a suspected covid-19 vaccine imported into the country without authorization by an importer named Chrismar Earthmoving Equipment.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT ZAMRA senior public relations officer Christabel Iliamupu said the authority would advise whether the proprietors of Chrismar Earthmoving Equipment would be prosecuted for this act. Valden Findlay is the prominent businessman behind Chrismar Earth Moving Equipment.
According to the Medicines and Allied Substances Act No 3 of 2013, “(1) a person shall not import any medicine or allied substance without an import permit. This section does not apply to any medicine or allied substance imported by a traveller entering Zambia for the traveller’s use as may be prescribed.
The Act provides that a person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding one million penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years, or to both.
The authority seized a vaccine named Hayat-Vax (SARS-COV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell), inactivated valued at US$150, 000. The seizure was necessitated as the vaccine was not registered or authorized by ZAMRA for use on the Zambian market and was also not listed under the World Health Organisation emergency use listing procedure.
The importer did not have a pharmaceutical license to sell, store, distribute, or supply and the importer did not have an import permit to authorize importation. The suspected vaccine where imported by Chrismar Earthmoving Equipment and are purported to have been manufactured by Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries in United Arab Emirates (Middle East.
