BANGKOK, 5 July 2012 – The Ministry of Public Health yesterday announced that over 8.7 million tablets of expired drugs have been acquired through the ‘old drugs for eggs’ campaign.
Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said approximately 20 million old tablets are expected to be exchanged for eggs by the end of this week. After the campaign, the ministry may consider extending the scheme if members of the public express their wish to trade in more drugs.
According to the recently launched campaign, Mr Surawit said the expired drugs can be exchanged for at least five eggs a household, adding 100,000 baht will be allocated for each province participating in the project.
During the project, the ministry collects and retrieves unused old medicines in order to create a nationwide inventory of old drugs in each household.
Mr Surawit revealed that the ministry is devising a measure to prevent the overuse of drugs in the country, as Thailand’s total expenditure on drugs is estimated at 100 billion baht each year.
