Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has called on the National Assembly to urgently amend the Fake Drug and Unwholesome Processed Food (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act to address the growing menace of counterfeit medicines and substandard products in the country.
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking at a press conference on Friday to announce the association’s 44th Annual National Conference, ACPN National Chairman, Ezeh Ambrose Igwekamma, stressed the urgent need to strengthen the country’s legal and regulatory frameworks to effectively curb the influx of fake drugs.
The upcoming conference, themed “Technology Integration, Personalised Care: The Future of Community Pharmacy Practice”, is scheduled to be held from July 22 to 27 in Awka, Anambra State.
Igwekamma expressed worry over the scale of the crisis, stating that although official statistics may suggest otherwise, over 50 percent of drugs in circulation are fake or substandard. He described the existing law as insufficient to deal with the scale and complexity of the problem.
He said, “ The NASS must, as a matter of urgency, amend the existing Fake Drug and Unwholesome Food Act to become a much more potent act of parliament.”
“Apart from the dangers that Nigerians were familiar with in the case of fake drugs, the fake drink conundrum is assuming a gargantuan tens-of-billion-naira business championed by modern-day merchants of death.”
The ACPN chairman warned about the rising prevalence of counterfeit alcoholic beverages and drinks, which he described as a multi-billion-naira criminal enterprise run by “modern-day merchants of death.”
Citing research conducted by Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Lagos, Igwekamma noted that 49.6 percent of fake drugs are sourced from open drug markets, while 32.8 percent come from patent medicine vendors.
He also criticized the declining effectiveness of regulatory bodies, noting that in recent years, efforts by the federal and state task forces have significantly dwindled, allowing the illicit trade to flourish despite the work of NAFDAC.
Igwekamma said, “ The influx of fake drugs, foods, and especially drinks in Nigeria has become a major source of worry in contemporary times.”
“Despite some modest efforts by NAFDAC, the influx of fake drugs and unwholesome food and drinks has surged very significantly in the last five years when the federal task force and the equivalent state task forces have almost become moribund with negligible regulatory output.”
“We desire to save consumers of health from the almost 5 million unregistered drug-selling outfits that dot both the rural and urban centres in Nigeria.”
