HEALTH-NIGERIA: Major Campaign to Combat Fake Drugs

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

ONITSHA, Eastern Nigeria, Jul 31 2002 (IPS) - Health authorities in Nigeria have launched a major campaign to combat the illegal selling of fake drugs in the country.

‘’The evil of fake drug is worse than malaria, HIV-AIDS and armed robbery put together. Whereas AIDS can be avoided, malaria can be prevented and armed robbers can kill a few at a time, fake drugs kill in thousands,” warns Dora Akunyili, director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC).

The agency safeguards food and drugs standards in Nigeria.

The campaign to clampdown on illegal drug dealers heightened with the closure of the notorious Aba drug market in eastern Nigeria by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration a week ago.

‘’The closure of the market should be seen as a commendable effort, if the citizens of this country are to be protected from those who are out to make money at all cost, not minding who is affected,” says Taiwo Ososan, a commentator who is based in Lagos.

‘’The only way for one to regain ones health is to take drugs as recommended by the doctor,” says Ososan.

Between July and October last year, the agency destroyed fake and expired drugs including food items worth about two billion Naira (about 20 million U.S. dollars) in Onitsha, eastern Nigeria, and in Lagos.

Aba and Onitsha Drug Markets, both in eastern Nigeria, are notorious havens through which fake drugs find their ways into this vast West African country. Onitsha Drug Market, according to health officials, is the main outlet for adulterated drugs to the Midwestern States of Edo and Delta.

‘’The acts of fake drugs are perpetuated by the wicked ones in the society who are interested in profit maximisation at the expense of the health of the unsuspecting Nigerian populace,” said Uzor Uzor, Co-ordinator of the Movement Against Fake Drugs (MAFAD) at a workshop held in Onitsha last week.

NAFDAC has sealed off 25 factories and warehouses in Onitsha for faking and counterfeiting offences since March, while 17 suspects have been handed over to the police for prosecution in the same period, according to Aliyu Mohammed, NAFDAC Deputy Director.

Products forfeited include drugs, food items, cosmetics and detergents worth 24 million Naira (about 220,000 U.S. dollars).

Akunyili says their new strategy focuses on enlightenment, education, persuasion and dialogue with the public and stakeholders.

In the northern state of Kaduna, 24 of the 25 pharmacies checked had fake drugs, while all pharmaceutical and patent stores in Jos, the capital of central Nigeria’s Plateau State, had fake and adulterated drugs, according to NAFDAC.

Mohammed, who led a combined team of police detectives and NAFDAC officers in a raid at an illegal warehouse, caught the suspects packaging. They were allegedly revalidating fake Actifed and Menstrogen tablets with forged labels and packets containing the names of Indian firms as manufacturers of the sub-standard drugs.

The two men are alleged to be members of a syndicate which specialises in the faking and illegal production of adulterated spirits and wines such as Bacchus wine, Chelsea Dry Gin, Remy Martins, Squadron Blended Dark Rum and Schnapps.

Rueben Nwankwo, of NAFDAC, says the fake and substandard drinks seized from the two suspects contain high concentration of ethanol substance, which could damage the liver and kidney of unsuspecting consumers.

The agency also has taken its fight to the international arena to block the lines through which fake drugs enter the country.

‘’Already, some of our analysts have been sent to India while some are expected to be sent to other countries that manufacture drugs for Nigeria, to ensure compliance with standards prescribed by NAFDAC. From January next year, only drugs certified by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) would be allowed into Nigeria,” Akunyili says.

Early this year, NAFDAC increased import registration fees to protect local pharmaceutical industry and check the activities of briefcase importers alleged to be masterminds of fake drugs.

‘’It is the intention of the agency to reduce the number of briefcase importers who are the main culprits in converting our country into a dumpsite for fake and counterfeit products. They have been identified by various studies to be the source of faking and counterfeiting,” Akunyili says.

‘’While the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance of local manufacturer is stringently assessed and re-assessed from time to time to ensure that it complies with international set standards, the imported products were never assessed for GMP compliance,” she says.

Akunyili says the new guidelines and tariffs introduced seven months ago by the agency are aimed at correcting these lapses.

‘’From now, no imported product shall be registered or renewed unless the foreign manufacturing company has been declared GMP compliant by NAFDAC officials after due factory inspection,” she says.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has often complained that one of the most important challenges facing Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry is the wide circulation of fake, counterfeit and adulterated drugs.

‘’Virtually every successful locally manufactured medication is taken to India or China by traders where they are cloned and brought back to compete with the genuine brands at ridiculous prices,” complains PSN President, Mohammed Budah.

Apparently for fears of being identified and arrested, the so-called drug dealers have declined to talk to IPS.