More than a dozen pharmacies around Qatar have been closed for three days by the Supreme Council of Health after they were found to be selling some medicines without keeping proper records.

A report in the Arabic newspaper Arrayah says the 13 closures came after the SCH carried out an inspection of 60 pharmacies.

The Gulf Times reports that inspectors found some outlets selling Viagra, antibiotics and some cough syrups without noting them in the pharmacy’s inventory.

We called Qatar Pharmacy Est, which runs five pharmacies around Doha. All of their outlets passed the inspection, but their General Manager, Mirza Ali Sajid, told Doha News that the medicines described in the report are all only available by prescription in Qatar. 

“According to the law some drugs need a prescription from doctors. These are called controlled medicines, things like antibiotics, and Viagra.  So these pharmacies may have been selling these drugs without prescription,” he said. 

The Gulf Times reports that all 13 outlets are branches of three well-known pharmacies.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Iqbal Osman