AFDAC’s new anti-counterfeiting strategies

The menace of counterfeit and substandard drugs, is no doubt one that has been on the front burner of national discourse as far as the safety of the health of Nigerians is concerned. This led to the setting up of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) by the Federal Government in 1993, with a clear mandate of safeguarding the health of the nation, through the provision of effective regulation of food, drug and chemical sector of the economy. While NAFDAC’s mandate covers the food and chemical industry, it is the drug market that draws the most attention, no doubt because of the pivotal role the sector plays in the health of the nation and because of the lucrativeness of the sector which makes it attractive to unscrupulous counterfeiters out to profit at the expense of the safety of Nigerians.Over the years, successive Directors-General of the Agency have come up with different strategies to curb the menace of fake drugs and each in his or her own way have helped to significantly address the problem working together with officers of the agency. According to studies conducted by NAFDAC from 2001 to 2012, there is a positive trend in the progressive decline in the incidence of counterfeit medicines in Nigeria. In 2001, counterfeits that stood at 40 per ent due largely to the indefatigable effort of the NAFDAC’s team, under the then Director-General, Prof. Dora Akunyuli, was reduced to 16.7 per cent in 2005. Shortly before she left the Agency, however, there were threats of resurgence of the incidence as counterfeiters too have not rested and have also continued to come up with novel ways of evading detection by NAFDAC and other law enforcement agencies. A study carried out in 2008 shortly before the arrival of the current Director-General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhii, on the Quality of Anti- Malarials in Sub-Saharan Africa (QAMSA) puts the incidence of the faking of anti-malarial drugs at 64 per cent. This made the new DG to declare a zero tolerance war on counterfeits shortly after assuming office.It is in realisation of this fact that the current administration of Dr. Orhii came up with a strategy that is not just only effective but one that is also guaranteed to place the agency many steps ahead of the counterfeiters in such a way that every of their moves is anticipated, checked and thwarted by the agency. One such strategy is the introduction of cutting-edge technology that has provided a more profound method of detecting counterfeits on the spot. Technology like the TRUSCAN machine for example have been deployed by the agency at the ports and entry points of the nation to carry out on-the-spot check of drugs before they are cleared into the country. The Agency’s officers have gone to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT with the TRUSCAN machine, paying unscheduled visits to medicine outlets to fish out counterfeit drugs and destroy them. NAFDAC as the first medicine regulatory agency in the world ever to deploy the technology and its effectiveness in curbing the menace of fake drugs, has not only drawn the attention of international medicine regulatory agencies, but has also made the agency’s DG, Dr. Orhii the toast in the industry.