The Min­istry of Health, the Med­ical Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Phar­ma­cy Board, and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce have agreed to a 30-day col­lab­o­ra­tive plan to re­solve con­cerns over the dis­tri­b­u­tion of spe­cial­i­ty drugs di­rect­ly to pa­tients.

The agree­ment fol­lowed a high-lev­el meet­ing con­vened on Ju­ly 10 by Min­is­ter of Health Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe, in re­sponse to the re­cent is­suance of cease-and-de­sist let­ters to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal whole­salers and dis­trib­u­tors.

The let­ters had raised alarm among pa­tients who re­ly on di­rect ac­cess to crit­i­cal med­ica­tions used to treat can­cer, gas­troin­testi­nal dis­or­ders, and oth­er com­plex con­di­tions.