The Court of Appeal in Accra has ordered Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority to pay more than GH¢30 million in damages to Tobinco Pharmaceuticals over the unlawful confiscation and destruction of the company’s products.
The ruling followed an appeal filed by the FDA seeking to overturn an earlier High Court judgment awarding damages to Tobinco.
According to reports, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the FDA’s appeal and upheld the High Court decision.
The court ruled that the FDA, under the leadership of former CEO Stephen Opuni, unlawfully detained Tobinco’s products, causing financial losses and damage to the company’s reputation and business.
The court affirmed awards of GH¢24.58 million in special damages, GH¢5 million in general damages, and GH¢1 million in legal costs in favour of Tobinco.
An additional GH¢50,000 cost was also awarded against the FDA.
The case dates back to 2014, when the FDA confiscated pharmaceutical products imported by Tobinco, claiming they were unwholesome.
In 2019, Tobinco sued the FDA, arguing that the confiscation and destruction of its products were unlawful.
The High Court later ruled that the destruction of unexpired drugs without a court order was illegal.
The court also held that the closure of Tobinco’s warehouses and negative publicity by the FDA caused many products to expire between June 2014 and August 2015.
It further declared that the FDA unlawfully banned Bliss GVS Pharma Limited from importing drugs into Ghana without the required Executive Instrument from the Minister of Health.
The judge in the original case also ruled that Tobinco did not import counterfeit drugs into the Ghanaian market and that the FDA’s actions caused substantial losses to the company.
