IN celebration of its 75th Anniversary, the St Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH) is now offering paracetamol and low-dose aspirin tablet medication under its own brand name.
The news was shared by the hospital in a release on Monday which indicated that next on the list to be branded was a cough syrup while other drugs will be included in the future.
It was Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Deborrah Ramsay, who engaged the hospital’s Pharmacy Manager/Chief Pharmacist, LeAndre Charles, to make the idea a possibility as she envisioned that the decades-old health institution could raise its level of service by having its own branded drugs.

‘Charles was in turn excited and Chirosyn Discovery, a Canadian pharmaceutical company, was selected to help prepare the first SJMH-branded paracetamol and aspirin tablets.
“We checked Chirosyn Discovery’s background and capabilities and were happy and confident that they can produce these two drugs for us at the standard that we want,” Mr. Charles said.

“It’s not only about the launch of products with Mercy’s logo, but it’s also a launch of products that have the drug efficacy and the drug safety that we want our patients to receive. So every patient who will receive these drugs is assured that what is in the bottle and what is on the box is what they will be getting.”

Charles explained that the SJMH-branded medications represent a significant step forward for the hospital in light of the global problem of counterfeit medications.

“There is a large percentage of drugs on the global market that don’t meet the required standards. Guyana is no exception. The volume of this trade is estimated to be US$10 billion. So when this happens, patients suffer; patients do not recover. Having formed an alliance with Chirosyn, we negated the opportunity of having falsified drugs as it relates to these two products. So we are extremely happy to launch the Chirosyn brand along with SJMH,” he said.

The Pharmacy Manager assured that patients can expect the best medicinal care when they go to SJMH.

Meanwhile, Chirosyn Discovery’s Managing Director, Talika Persaud, noted that SJMH was the first and only hospital that her company had trusted enough to put Chirosyn’s endorsement on the medication packaging.

She said that the drugs bearing the Chirosyn and SJMH logo had been tested and met Canadian drug standards and described it as a proud moment for Chirosyn Discovery to be able to work with SJMH.

At the same time, Ramsay said that the introduction of the Mercy-branded drugs was only the beginning of what the institution had planned for its 75th anniversary year.