Tuesday 16 / June / 2026
Muscat: The Ministry of Health, represented by the Drug Safety Center (DSC), has launched an awareness campaign aimed at monitoring and safeguarding against the risks of counterfeit and low-quality medical products, and raising the efficiency of their safe and responsible use among all segments of society and workers in the healthcare sector.
The campaign comes to embody the pivotal role undertaken by the Drug Safety Centre, the regulatory and supervisory authority at the Ministry of Health, to ensure the safety and quality of medical products, and to transform health awareness into a sustainable daily community behaviour based on the principle that the safety of medical products is a shared responsibility.
The launch of the campaign comes in response to several contemporary variables and challenges, most notably: the growth of e-commerce in terms of the expansion of unreliable digital platforms for selling medical products; the exploitation of consumers, as some have been observed rushing after low-cost or quickly accessible products without verifying their safety; and the increasing demand for supplements due to the noticeable rise in the popularity of slimming products, dietary supplements, and stimulants, which creates a fertile environment for the circulation of counterfeit and non-conforming medical products.
The awareness campaign to combat counterfeit and low-quality medical products targets various groups in society and the health sector, focusing on chronic disease patients, youth, and health professionals, alongside educational and media institutions, content creators, and medical product distribution outlets.
The campaign includes a series of awareness, training, and educational programmes and activities, featuring introductory meetings for the Centre’s staff and focal points in the governorates, and organising an open day for the public with the participation of various health entities on 2 July, in addition to training workshops for medical cadres and medical device engineers.
Awareness and media programmes
The campaign also includes the implementation of awareness and media programmes across digital platforms and various media outlets to enhance awareness of mechanisms for verifying medical products, and to combat misleading advertisements and unscientific recommendations.
The Drug Safety Center at the Ministry of Health explained that counterfeit medicines, devices, and medical supplies pose a direct threat to patients’ health and safety.
Their risks are not limited to poor efficacy or failure to achieve the desired medical purpose, but may also lead to serious health complications due to non-compliance with quality, safety, and performance requirements, and may cause delays in treatment, worsen the health condition, or, in some critical cases, lead to death.
The Centre emphasises that it possesses a strict regulatory system that begins before the medical product reaches the markets, by registering the product, verifying the manufacturing plants of origin, auditing the raw materials used, and testing storage and manufacturing conditions, up to conducting precise laboratory analyses.
Monitoring warnings
The Centre stressed that monitoring the safety of medical products is a continuous process throughout the product’s life cycle, as the Centre relies on reports received from community members and medical cadres, in parallel with monitoring warnings issued by international regulatory bodies, to take immediate and decisive decisions to recall any product proven to pose risks.
The Centre points out that the real key to the success of this awareness campaign relies on active community partnership, calling on everyone to make conscious health decisions, rely on official sources, and take the initiative to report any suspicious products or practices to safeguard the health of society and ensure the safety of its members. -ONA
