NAFDAC Should Raise Its Game
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), a body under the Federal Ministry of Health, is responsible for regulating and controlling the manufacture, import, export, advertisement, distribution, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals and prepackaged water in Nigeria. The establishment of the agency by Decree No. 15 of 1993 was inspired by a 1988 World Health Assembly resolution requesting countries’ help in combating the global health threat posed by counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
The scope of the influx of fake and counterfeit drugs into Nigeria and their consumption, with attendant human tragedies, simply beggar imagination. This puts NAFDAC squarely on the spot - with good reason. Last month, two ladies, one a student of the Benue State University, Makurdi, were confirmed dead after taking Gentamicin 280mg injection. According to the director-general of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, the incident occurred in Gboko and Makurdi. Recently, the agency raised the alarm over the influx of counterfeit Ampiclox, a brand of ampicillin/cloxacillin capsules used in the treatment of bacterial infections. In a release it sent to media houses as well as to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, the agency announced that its officials have discovered the presence of fake ampiclox capsules with batch numbers 50040, 10040 and 500401 in several parts of the country.
Due to a poor culture of generation and maintenance of relevant statistical data, reliable numerical information of human casualty - outright deaths and deformities - from the ingestion, injection and general application of fake and counterfeit drugs in Nigeria is hardly known. This situation is alarming.
The current DG of NAFDAC is certainly no rookie. He is a seasoned Russian-trained medical scientist. Since his appointment as the agency’s boss in January 2009 by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration, he cannot be said to be finding his feet still. Since his appointment, it also cannot be denied that he has scripted several innovations to tackle the sweeping challenges of fake and counterfeit drugs inundating the country. He has proposed that dealers in counterfeit drugs should henceforth be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. The agency has completed arrangements to sponsor a bill that will start the process of transforming it into law.
Perhaps a most important initiative of the agency is its recent proposal to the presidency for a N200 billion Pharmaceutical Intervention Fund (PIF) to aid the reanimation of the local pharmaceutical industry, a plan that should see the industry eventually meeting the local drugs demand and exports. The PIF initiative, which has received the blessing of President Goodluck Jonathan, is expected to create about 250,000 jobs for pharmacists, microbiologists, marketers and other stakeholders within the expanded pharmaceutical industry that would emerge.
While we commend these efforts, we must insist that a whole lot more needs to be done by the agency charged with this crucial responsibility. The key gaps in the agency’s operational canvass must be identified and expeditiously dealt with, be it in the areas of capacity, equipment, personnel, funding and research. NAFDAC must raise its game today. The precious lives of Nigerians can no longer be cheaply sacrificed on the altar of a criminal, blood-thirsty multi-billion dollar industry of counterfeit drugs trade.
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