E-DRUG: the menace of fake drugs in Nigeria
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[from IRIN-WA; copied as fair use. WB]
LAGOS, 22 March (IRIN) - When Lagos banker Banji Onimode was
recently diagnosed with a bacterial infection, his doctor
prescribed a course of antibiotics that Onimode bought from a
local pharmacy. But after completing the course of medication
without improvement in his condition, the doctor asked to see
the drugs.
"After inspecting both the packet and the capsules, the doctor
pronounced them fake," Onimode told IRIN. "He now had to
procure a new of the antibiotics himself and before I completed
the prescribed course, the symptoms disappeared."
In Nigeria, Onimode's experience is common, sometimes with fatal
consequences. Almost every efficacious patent or prescription
drug sold in Africa's most populous country - one of 120 million
people - has either a fake or adulterated version. They range
from common analgesics, through antibiotics to drugs for
ailments such as diabetes and hypertension. Sources in Nigeria's
pharmaceutical industry estimate 40 percent of the drugs in
circulation in the country are either fake or adulterated.
At the forefront in the battle against the menace is the
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC). In the past five months NAFDAC has on an almost
weekly basis published lists of newly identified fake and
adulterated drugs in circulation, giving the public advice on
how to spot them.
A recent list published in national newspapers on 15 March
included fake versions of Peflacine antibiotics originally
manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc. It also identified counterfeit
versions of Betnesol-N eye, ear and nose drops produced by Glaxo
Wellcome, and the Diabinese drug for diabetics made by Pfizer. A
majority of the fake items were identified as having been
imported from India.
NAFDAC officials say some of the fake products either contain
ordinary powder or starch, while others contain ingredients that
may be poisonous. In other cases the drugs had expired and were
still kept in circulation. Often, especially antibiotics, the
active ingredients in fake drugs are well below the advertised
doses printed on the packaging.
"For instance we frequently have cases of ciproflaxacin
antibiotics advertised to be 500mg when in reality they are 250
mg," one official told IRIN.
A pharmacist and an official of the Pharmaceutical Society of
Nigeria, Tony Ude, blames the phenomenon of fake and
adulterated drugs on the "chaotic" distribution system in the
country. He traced the current situation to developments in the
health sector and the pharmaceutical industry between the 1960s
and the 1980s.
"The fact remains that drug distribution in pre-independent
Nigeria was very orderly and lawful," he said in a recent paper
published on the subject. "Due to the paucity of registered
pharmacists at independence, the few available pharmacists
resorted to multiple registration of pharmaceutical premises,"
he added.
Ude said pharmacists did this by simply presenting photocopies
of their annual license to practice in as many shops as
possible for fees agreed with the shop owners. Consequently,
ordinary traders "with no knowledge of poisons or prescription
drugs" engaged in the pharmaceuticals business without
supervision, thereby defeating the purpose intended by the
stipulations of the law. Even traders in the market now
obtained licences to deal in patent and proprietary medicines,
he said.
In the past two decades, huge markets dealing in patent and
prescription drugs have mushroomed in the country's major
cities: They include the commercial capital Lagos, northern
Nigeria's biggest city, Kano and the main southeastern trading
town of Onitsha. These have also become the nerve centres of
the counterfeit drug trade.
"There are very rich businessmen in these centres who travel to
Asian countries, especially India, and connive with
manufacturers there to produce fake and substandard drugs,"
Osita Okeke, a marketer for leading drug manufacturers in
Nigeria told IRIN. "They now import these drugs into the
country and sell at huge profits."
He said the damage done by such dealers could not be quantified
in health terms, but in monetary terms ran into billions of
naira - the local currency. "Not only is the health of the
entire nation endangered, a lot of money that could have been
put to good use is being spent by Nigerians on drugs that have
no value due to the activities of some unscrupulous people,"
Okeke said.
With the dangers obviously in mind, NAFDAC has redoubled its
efforts to interdict fake drug peddlers. During the past year,
the agency seized and destroyed huge stocks of fakes in Lagos,
Onitsha and Kano; and prosecuted their owners.
NAFDAC Director Dora Akunyili is now working to implement a
novel idea to replace the current drug distribution system:
drug distribution points or "drug marts" are to be established
in Nigeria's 774 local council areas.
"Right now, the drug distribution network is in total confusion
and we cannot continue this way. We cannot regulate the market
and professionals are not in charge of sales," she told
reporters recently.
But she said the current system could not be abolished until
the alternative was put in place. Under the new system she
envisages designated markets, properly regulated and with air
conditioned storage - unlike the current market situation where
even genuine drugs deteriorate quickly for lack of proper
storage.
"With the agency's commitment to fight and win the war against
fake drugs, we need a channel for genuine drugs. The drug marts
will (also) check the cost of imported drugs to make them more
affordable," she said.
[ENDS]
IRIN-WA
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
Email: IRIN-WA@irin.ci
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