HEALTH-NIGERIA: New Efforts to Fight Fake Drugs

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Aug 5 2003 (IPS) - The death of two children, administered with cardiac stimulant, after successful heart operations in the eastern Nigerian city of Enugu has exposed the dangers that fake and adulterated drugs pose to patients.

Nigeria’s National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which has been battling with corrupt traders, has destroyed mountains of sub-standard drugs worth 5.5 billion naira (55 million U.S. dollars) since 2001.

”I am sad over the loss (of the two children) because NAFDAC has worked very hard to rid the country of fake drugs. In fact, I have not recovered from the shock of their death,” says Dora Akunyili, head of NAFDAC.

Sources in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry estimate 50 percent of the drugs in circulation in the country are either fake or adulterated. Most of the drugs are imported from India, China, Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia.

India’s state minister for commerce and industry, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, visited Nigeria in June and promised to help the West African country rids itself of sub-standard drugs to avoid unnecessary loss of lives.

Akunyili blames the management of the hospital for the death of the two children. ”If medical authorities had adhered to my directives to purchase drugs directly from manufacturers or accredited manufacturers’ representatives, the incidence would have been avoided,” she told a local television.

Investigations reveal that the drugs – adrenalin infusion and muscle relaxant – were fake ones.

They were meant to kick-start the hearts of the children after the removal of the artificial respiratory equipment. The drugs were purchased from the pharmacy of the University Teaching Hospital in Enugu, which shocked both the team of surgeons and the hospital management.

The surgeons, made up of 21 expatriates and ten local doctors, had just operated on six other Nigerian children successfully. Globally, they have dealt with more than 1,500 children.

The two children were beneficiaries of the Kanu Heart Foundation. They were part of the 30 children in Nigeria who were chosen for free heart surgery.

Kanu, a Nigerian soccer star, had a heart surgery in the United States in 1996. Since then, he has returned to active soccer.

Kanu, who plies his trade in Britain, set up the foundation to help people who cannot afford surgery overseas.

So far NAFDAC, which is trying to uphold Nigeria’s drugs standard, has shut down 17 pharmacies in Enugu.

The notorious Onitsha market in neighbouring Anambra State has also been closed down, pending screening exercise by NAFDAC.

Onitsha market has been described as the leading centre for fake and adulterated drugs concentration in Nigeria. Since Akunyili’s appointment in 1999, NAFDAC has destroyed sub-standard drugs in major cities including Lagos, Aba, Onitsha, Abuja and Kano.

Celestine Nwomuku, NAFDAC spokesperson, says investigations show that most pharmacies in Enugu were purchasing drugs from unregistered sources without proper invoice and receipt contrary to the agency’s directives. ”Most of the drugs stocked in these pharmacies were obtained from the open market and from untraceable addresses with improper and unreliable invoices,” he said in a statement.

Anthony Mba, senior medical administrator in Enugu, says they will ”fully investigate how the sub-standard drugs got to the hospital’s pharmacy and what company supplied them”.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has vowed to put merchants, who supply fake drugs, out of business. No country, he said, could attain any degree of development or succeed in alleviating poverty without good health.

Government has banned import of drug products and pharmaceutical raw materials through land borders. Importers will now only use designated airports and seaports as entry points for drugs. Under a new law, they must also submit cargo manifest by all airlines to NAFDAC before the arrival of imported drugs.

Akunyili has vowed to rid Nigeria of fake drugs by 2004.

But analysts believe that only tough measures can restore order in the industry.

”People who sell fake drugs should be tried for murder by hanging. I believe it is the best way to stop the menace of fake drug dealers who have killed thousands through their greed," says Segun Aribike, a social commentator in Lagos.