Algeria: commerce ministry withdraws Rahmat Rebbi nutritional complement from markets

The commerce ministry will withdraw nutritional complementary Rahmat Rebbi from markets and drugstores as from Wednesday. This is a preventive procedure as authorities wait for results of final analyses conducted on this complement.

“The decision comes as part of preventive procedures of the ministry. An instruction was given to all the ministerial departments to withdraw the complement,” said the ministry in a press release

It called on patients to stop buying the complement until the analyses results are obtained. It warned chemists and traders of legal sanctions if they continue selling the product.

According to sources at the health ministry, the food complement will be analysed at the National Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Products Surveillance and the National Center of Toxicology.

This comes as the health minister announced that his ministry washes hands of any quality or marketing-related responsibility for this product.

“The product is not part of the health ministry’s prerogatives as it is not a medicine. It is a nutritional complement,” he told Echorouk.

Earlier, many health care associations and doctors and even some chemists warned against possible repercussions of the complement as some patients stop taking insulin.   

The Federation of Diabetic’s Associations called for withdrawing the product as it “misleads” patients.