Recent incidents suggest that Guyana has had to deal with incidents of both ‘importation’ of expired drugs and their use of such drugs in the public health system. Reportedly, the importation of expired drugs is linked to corrupt practices involving handlers of drugs-importation at the level of the state and businessmen seeking to maximise their earnings. The ‘importation’ of expired drugs and their infusion into the national public health system is also a function of monitoring-related weaknesses in the system, not least at the level of the Government Analyst Food & Drugs Department (GA&FDD). One of the GA&FDD’s weaknesses is linked to its human resource limitations while another is believed to be the overriding of the agency’s authority by state functionaries.
