RIYADH: The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has refused to permit the purchase of medication over the Internet, reiterating that the law “does not allow the buying of medical formulations or medicines through the Internet or via telephone”. “The SFDA is prepared to grant persons who require medicines unavailable on the Saudi market permission to import, as long as the item description officially meets SFDA regulations,” said the SFDA executive vice president for medicine, Saleh Bawazir. He warned that medications traded over the Internet were of suspect quality and origin, saying that “50 percent of them are adulterated”. Bawazir was speaking as he gave World Health Organization head Margaret Chan an overview of medicine sector regulations Monday, a meeting which also saw discussions on WHO using the SFDA's experience in medicine factories inspections. “The SFDA has in the last three years had successes unmatched by other countries in a decade,” he said. SFDA executive vice president Muhammad Al-Kanhal had previously presented to a WHO delegation an overview of the Authority's monitoring of food products, medicinal products and equipment, as well as the size of domestic foodstuff production and imports into the Kingdom. Al-Kanhal also addressed the importance of the sector to the region as a whole, food development programs, and the early warning system that scrutinizes world events around the clock to ensure the safety of products on the Saudi market.
