NAFDAC debunks prevalence of substandard drugs in Nigeria
Kasara Chukwuma
Director General, National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has described a report that says that about 70 per cent of drugs in Nigeria are substandard as false and fake news.
Addressing journalists on the fake report in Lagos on Tuesday, Adeyeye gave reasons why the report was false.
She explained that “it is fake news because it is not true. The statement is irresponsible and whoever that said that, has no data nor scientific proof or evidence to back up his claims.
We work with data in anything we do in the agency and we have them. In the said report, there were no data to back up the 70 per cent claim and we all know that data cannot lie.
“We have not seen any local pharmaceutical company that produces fake products. NAFDAC does a lot of work in terms of monitoring substandard and falsified medicines and we have devices to protect our essential medicines from counterfeiters.”
The NAFDAC boss, however, stated that a study jointly carried out by NAFDAC, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2005 revealed that fake medicines stood at 17 per cent in the country.
She added that a survey conducted by NAFDAC in 2017 and 2018 on some widely used drugs showed that Nigerian medicines were 98 per cent wholesome.
Also, the Safe Medicines Foundation through its founder and former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ahmed Yakasai, refuted the claim, insisting that it was impossible for 70 per cent of drugs in Nigeria to be fake.
Speaking at the press briefing, Yakasai said “the statement is unreasonable and it is not possible. The foundation wholly supports NAFDAC’s rebuttal of the erroneous report that 70 per cent of drugs in Nigeria are fake.
“This was the fake news that misquoted the keynote address speaker at the 91st annual national conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in Umuahia, Dr. Andrew Nevin.
Instead of writing 17 per cent, they murdered the figure and presented the fake one. We are worried and dismayed that the same fake figure is resurfacing again and again.”
He urged the federal government to adequately fund the agency to be able to operate as a modern regulatory body.
