NAFDAC urges healthcare stakeholders to fight counterfeit drugs

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC), on Wednesday, urged health sector stakeholders in the South-South region to join the fight against substandard and falsified (SF) medical products in Nigeria.

The Director General (DG) of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made the remark at a two-day sensitisation workshop organised by the Agency in Port Harcourt.

She said that the workshop, sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was for sensitisation on the green book, traceability of products and paediatric regulation.

Adeyeye, represented by Fraden Bitrus, the Director, Post Marketing Surveillance Directorate, NAFDAC, said that the agency had over the years deployed various measures to combat substandard and falsified products.

The DG said that part of the measures was the agency’s publication on Consumer Safety and counterfeit products in daily newspapers.

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Others are the “Shine Your Eyes” programme on national TV, and technologies like MAS, Truscan, Minilab, NAFDAC and “Your Health” on NTA, Channels and TVC stations, among others.

She said that Low and Medium Income Countries (LMIC) had grappled with a man-made evil called Substandard and Falsified (SF) products, commonly known as counterfeit and fake medical products.

According to Adeyeye, these products are produced by greedy businessmen and their international collaborators to get rich.

“This is the worst inhumanity of man to fellow men; now, the counterfeiters have assumed more sophisticated dimensions to advance their trade.

“Therefore, the Agency is poised to use technologies and modern means to mitigate the activities of counterfeiters and therefore, the need for sensitisation of stakeholders is apt,” she stated.(NAN)