Over 13 thousand short-term drugs at the QKUK drug store

Director Dardane Mehaji says that most of these drugs are from the pandemic period, and some of them are earlier.

“ ...How the collection of stock has come largely due to misplanations, eventually from donations from foreign pharmaceutical organisations, the way the donations are received, the expiration deadlines of those products due to procedures until they arrived at the drugs, maybe the procedure when there is a donation of until it has been so long that the product has come with an extended or very short term...”, Mehaj told Rev21.

The Health Ministry said it has formed the working group for determining the legal criteria for the annihilation of the expired medical products, and is also working on building the drug depot.

The Ministry of Health has formed a working group for determining legal criteria, administrative criteria and technical specifications for the annihilation of medical products in the central MS Depon, which has started working in this direction. Also, the Ministry of Health is in the process of expropriating the parcel for the construction of an MS drug Depos from a public property managed by the AKP, as well as based on the assessment invested by the German GIZ has been drafted Strategic Document for Medical Reservation for all health care levels. As far as waste drugs are concerned, most drugs are registered in the registers as long-term drugs, according to the legal provisions in force since 2017. ”

The Kosovo Pharmacists' Oda considers that long-term medicines until the extermination procedures should be deposited in safe environments, as they release dangerous toxins.

“...overdue pharmaceutical products initially register in a form that determines the name, doza, serial number, expiration date. These drugs are then quarantined and stored at an angle of the drug store until the completion of all legal procedures. It's the only form in private institutions or in drugstores. These types of drugs also have in all Kosovo centres. The responsibility for the license of companies for the elimination of drugs lies with the Ministry of Environment and Space Planning, which has already licensed several companies...”, Haxhijaha said.

Environmentalist Luan Hasanaj speaks of the danger that could threaten nature, humans and animals from medical waste if they are not professionally destroyed. In the central KKUK drugtore, they declared that the process of extermination is considered to be costly.

The World Health Organization recommends several steps, including going back to the manufacturer, burying, chemical deletion, and burning, for certain annihilation of the over-term drugs. /RTV21