The Ministry of Health has shut a private pharmacy in the northern emirates for breaching licensing regulations.
Dr Amin Al Amiri, under-secretary for public health policy and licensing and chairman of the higher committee for pharmaceutical vigilance in the UAE, said that inspectors found “unprecedented quantities” of controlled medicines at an unspecified pharmacy.
The drugs were not intended for sale to the public but for wholesale, in breach of the law which authorises wholesale through authorised agents alone.
Inspectors also found the pharmacist had failed to keep a proper inventory of the drugs and a daily register of prescriptions.
“Some prescriptions have been falsified and the name of a cosmetic surgeon used and his seal forged,” Dr Al Amiri said.
The doctor in question said the prescriptions were not written by him.
The pharmacy employees questioned each denied responsibility for the breaches, blaming colleagues.
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