A WEST Clare pharmacy owner will appear in the circuit court in relation to charges of the alleged unlawful possession of veterinary medicine.
Marie Kelly of Westpark, Spanish Point is charged with being in possession of animal remedies where the respective labels on the products were altered without the required authorisation from the Irish Medicine Board.
Ms Kelly and her firm, Esterville Ltd of Main Street, Miltown Malbay, face a total of 29 separate charges relating to animal pharmaceutical products and subsequent breaches of EU regulations concerning the supply and administration of those products.
The charges were brought following an investigation by the Department of Agriculture’s Special Investigation Unit.
State solicitor, Martin Linnane outlined that the DPP had agreed that the accused, as a director of Esterville Ltd, could be sent forward for trial to the circuit court, an order approved by Judge Marian O’Leary.
Ms Kelly is charged with being in possession of a number of animal remedies, including Primidoxine, Pen and Strep, Phenylarthrite, Maxoject, LA, Linospectin, Nufflor, Noroclav, Norrocaine and Norocolin on dates from January 30, 2013 to February 12, 2013.
Ms Kelly and her company, Esterville Ltd, are charged with the sale or supply of animal remedies between May 18, 2012 and February 11, 2013.
It is alleged that she issued the sale or supply of 180 x 110ml of Maxoject LA, while the remedy had been designated as “prescription only” and that she was in possession of three 100ml Norocaine products and two 500ml Norocaine products, which had been designated as veterinary practitioners only (VPO).
The State also alleges that Ms Kelly and Esterville Ltd failed to keep records of individual sales, purchases and transactions, which included the identity of the animal remedy, the various quantities obtained and supplied, the product name and the name and address of the respective suppliers.
By Trevor Quinn
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.