Health
STAKEHOLDERS in the health sector have called on the Federal Government to take bold and concrete steps to sanitise the sector by ensuring that fake and substandard drugs and chemicals no longer find their ways into the country.
The stakeholders, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) across the South-Western states of Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and Kwara on Thursday, said that fake and substandard drugs had wrecked serious havocs in the nation’s health sector.
Mr Eniola Akindeko, Chairman Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ondo State chapter, urged government agencies to be proactive and ensure that only genuine pharmaceutical companies were issued licences to import drugs into the country.
Akindeko said that it had become imperative for consumers to join hands with concerned government agencies to curb the rate at which fake drugs were being imported into the country by patronising only licenced pharmaceutical stores.
According to him, if consumers can cultivate the habit of patronising only licensed and reputable medicine stores, it will incapacitate those importing fake drugs.
“To checkmate the inflow of fake drugs into the country, two things must be taken into consideration: the regulator and the consumer approaches.
“The regulating agencies must ensure that only reputable pharmaceutical companies are granted licences to import pharmaceutical products into the county.
“It is the responsibility of agencies like NAFDAC, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), NDLEA, Nigerian Port Authority and Nigeria Custom Service to collaborate and ensure that only genuine pharmaceutical companies are allowed to import drugs into the country,” Akindeko said.
Speaking with NAN in Ilorin, Mr Roland Tomiwa, Chairman of the Community Pharmacist, Kwara chapter, advised the various regulatory agencies on effective monitoring of drugs that were being imported into the country.
According to Tomiwa, fake and substandard drugs and chemicals will never cease from coming into Nigeria until concerned government agencies are alive to their responsibilities.
He suggested that the agencies should ensure that all the drugs and chemicals coming to Nigeria met the statutory requirements before being allowed into the distribution chains.
Tomiwa advised the agencies to blacklist all companies that were involved in importing fake and counterfeit drugs and chemicals, and release their names to the public.
The chairman of the community pharmacist also advocated for the establishment of a viable, well funded and independent “pharmacovigilance” agency to ensure that drugs’ adverse effects and traceability were properly done by NAFDAC.
To Mr Rilwan Olaniyi, a pharmacist, the regulatory bodies in charge of maintaining standard pharmaceutical products in the country are to be blamed for the prevalence of fake and counterfeit drugs and chemicals.
According to him, some of the regulatory bodies are paid to get the fake products certified.
”So, awareness should be created for people and individuals to know about the dangers of consuming these bad products.
”This is because if no one is buying them, those importing them will be out of business.
”Government can also subsidise the standard products to ensure affordability by ordinary Nigerians.
The Coordinator of NAFDAC in Osun, Mr Anikoh Ibrahim, said that the agency would continue to work toward achieving its mission of safeguarding public health.
Ibrahim said this would be done by ensuring that only quality drugs, food and other regulated products were manufactured, imported, distributed, advertised, sold and used in the country.
He said that the agency would not relent in ensuring that regulated products were of consistent good quality and made available at all times, to the satisfaction of the consumers.
According to him, NAFDAC is committed to ensuring that processed foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, chemicals and biological vaccines are thoroughly scrutinised to ensure consistent quality for Nigerians.
Another pharmacist, Mrs Kehinde Olawale, also stressed the need for regulatory agencies to intensify efforts at clamping down on fake pharmaceutical companies bringing fake and counterfeit drugs in the country.
Olawale, who is the Managing Director, Kentom Pharmacy, said that the regulatory agencies needed to enforce strict measures of compliance in order to checkmate the activities of pharmaceutical companies importing fake drugs into the country.
Although she said that government agencies might have been clamping down on those engaging in the unwholesome acts, she, however, said that more still needed to be done.
Olawale said that the pharmaceutical body had a lot to do in term of engaging stakeholders on the dangers associated with importation of fake drugs into the country.
She said that awareness campaigns to get citizens informed on the dangers of counterfeit drugs would go a long way in addressing the issue of fake drugs.
Similarly, Mr Kayode Atere, an officer of Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN) in Osun, said checkmating importation of fake or substandard drugs should be the duty of the government agencies manning the nation’s borders.
“Although PCN works in collaboration with NAFDAC, it only regulates operations of pharmaceuticals and their owners, including their operational premises. However, it is NAFDAC that regulates importation of pharmaceutical products into the country,” he said.
Atere noted that NAFDAC had all the necessary equipment to check all the drugs and chemicals being imported into the country.
The medical experts, who spoke with NAN in Ogun, raised alarm over what they called the influx and prevalence of fake and substandard drugs in the country and its negative implications on the health of citizens.
They unanimously called for concerted efforts at checking the menace.
Dr Godwin Okon, a Public Health Physician, told NAN that the use of fake drugs was responsible for the growing cases of hypertension, heart failure, stroke, hearing defects, loss of sight and other illnesses in the country.
Okon noted that the nation had continued to lose thousands of its citizens annually due to increasing use of fake drugs.
He called on NAFDAC and other relevant agencies to redouble their efforts by ensuring that imported drugs were carefully monitored at both pre-shipment and destination levels.
Dr Adekunle Ashimi, Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Ogun chapter, urged NAFDAC to strengthen collaborations with relevant agencies, such as Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and others in stemming the tide.
He stressed the need for availability of experts and equipment at the nation’s borders to help discover fake and substandard drugs.
The NMA chairman also called for proper education of citizens on how to discover fake drugs at the point of purchase.
Mr Abiodun Obube, Vice-Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Ogun chapter, said that the association had continued to work in tandem with the regulatory agencies to ensure that fake or expired drugs were not brought into the state.
Obube said that the organisation had continually embarked on unscheduled inspections to pharmaceutical firms in order to discover any possible illicit practice.
Through this, he said that PSN had discovered some illicit practices, which had led to closure of some firms in the state.
“We engage in continuous monitoring and inspection to ensure we don’t have fake drugs and expired drugs in circulation in the state.
“Recently, the wife of the governor, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun, set up a committee on drug control, with members of our association as strong members of the committee.
“We are trying as much as possible to leverage that and ensure that we don’t have fake drugs in Ogun and Nigeria generally.
“There is a unit that we call Pharmacy Inspection Committee, whose statutory responsibility is to inspect all pharmaceutical outlets within the state,” he said.
Mrs Jane Osime, a civil servant in the state Ministry of Health, stated that over-dependence on foreign manufactured goods, including essential drugs, had continued to have negative impacts on the nation’s economy.
Osime noted that local pharmaceutical firms in the country had low capacity to manufacture drugs.
She stressed the need for the government to give them a boost so that the country could be less dependent on imported drugs.
Speaking with NAN in Ibadan, Mr Jones Agbonifo, a pharmacist, called on NAFDAC to step up efforts to checkmate pharmaceutical companies importing fake drugs and substandard chemicals into the country.
According to Agbonifo, issue of fake and substandard drugs has been constituted serious threat to the pharmaceutical industry for a very long time.
He said that the havoc being caused by the menace was unimaginable, citing premature death and morbidity as few of the consequences of consumption of fake drugs.
He urged NAFDAC to redouble its efforts at flushing out perpetrators of the criminal acts in the society.
He urged the agency and other relevant bodies at the nation’s seaports, airports and land borders to ensure proper monitoring and checks on all drugs coming into the country.
He also tasked pharmacists and other people dealing in drugs trade to always ensure strict compliance with the ethics of the profession.
Also, Mrs Ibukun Adejare, a diabetic patient, pleaded with government to take the issue of fake drugs seriously.
Adejare, who said she was once a victim of fake drug, urged the general public to always be mindful of where they buy drugs to avoid consumption of fake or expired ones.
She narrated how consumption of fake drugs had contributed to her deteriorating health condition. (NAN)
KN
Tags: Anikoh Ibrahim Eniola Akindeko Kentom Pharmacy Rilwan Olaniyi Roland Tomiwa
