NAFDAC blames drug barons for global rise of counterfeit medicines

HAVE you ever wonder why the issue of counterfeit medicine is not dying? even  in the  global  arena?  The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says that the phenomenon has continued to rise, rather wither away, because of   global, intensive crackdown on “illicit narcotic trade”.

NAFDAC Director General, Dr. Paul Orhii, who gave the hint in Lagos during the award of International Organization for Standardisation and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO 17025/IEC): 2005 laboratory accreditation agency’s Yaba Central Drug Laboratory from the U.S. Agency for International Development  (USAID) and United States Pharmacopeia Convention (USP), stated that the crack down freed huge amount of money from illegal narcotic trade by drug   barons to counterfeiting medicines. 

“We first discovered counterfeit medicine in    Nigeria in 1968. But we did not know that it was a big problem. The problem grows and worsened. By  2001, almost 40 per cent of regulated medicines in Nigeria were termed to be substandard; people went to buy antibiotics only to find out that it was ordinary chalk they bought. But with the help of   late Prof. Doral Akunyili, NAFDAC was able to reduce the incidence   of counterfeit and substandard medicines to about 16.4 per cent in 2005. Unfortunately, the issue of counterfeit medicine did not die away. With the crackdown on illicit narcotic trade, we find out that globally that counterfeiters now have resources to manufacture counterfeit medicines, thereby growing   the globally international counterfeit medicines to billion of dollars,” Orhii said. 

 Quoting   from international authorities, Orhii put the value of counterfeit medicines in the global arena between $174 million to $200 million annually, adding that big   countries like Nigeria were at the receiving end of the ugly phenomenon. Orhii, who stated     

Nigeria was becoming attractive to sub-standard medicines because of her large population and difficult-to- man porous borders, said his agency would not give drug counterfeiters breathing space to survive in   the country.    

 ISO/IEC by UPS and USAID is a demonstration that testing and calibration of the agency’s Yaba Central Drug Laboratory is technically competent for defined test scopes and operation of a laboratory quality management to meet international standards.   

 While USAID is an independent federal agency of the U.S that provides aid to citizens of foreign countries, the USP is a U.S-based scientific organisation which sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed and consumed worldwide.