Dealers to Join Fight Against Fake Drugs – NAFDAC

The NAFDAC has urged patent medicine dealers to join its campaign against fake and counterfeit drugs. The Director General of the agency, Dr Paul Orhii, made the call in Abakaliki on Friday in a message to a workshop designed to expose tricks of fake drug peddlers. He said the training was aimed at enlightening proprietary medicine dealers on the menace of fake drugs on public health. Orhii called for concerted efforts from all concerned in the battle against fake and regulated products. “The fight against fake and regulated products is not for NAFDAC alone. It is a fight for all so that everyone should contribute,’’ he said. Outlining the ways the stakeholders could contribute in the fight against fake and regulated products, Orhii said buying medicines from authenticated sources and obtaining letter-headed receipts of purchases could help. He said they should also ensure that they bought and sold only genuine medicines duly registered by NAFDAC. He said all adverse drug reactions should be similarly reported to NAFDAC. In his address, the Commander of the NDLEA in Ebonyi, Dr Ngozi Madubuike, described the workshop as apt in the effort to safeguard the health of Nigerians. “Fake and substandard regulated products as we all know portends very serious health hazards to those who happen to be victims. “There is no doubt that thousands of Nigerians have lost their lives due to fake and substandard regulated products. “Nigeria does not have enough pharmacists to cater for her teeming population, especially in the rural areas, hence the need to use patent medicine dealers to wage the war against fake drugs,” he said.