The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned the public against buying medicines without a receipt in pharmacies.
The agency’s director-general, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, issued the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Adeyeye also cautioned Nigerians against patronising street drug hawkers, saying that anybody who buys medicine from a hawker will very likely be buying substandard, falsified medicine.
“What I will tell the public is not to buy medicine except in the pharmacy where you can get a receipt.
“Does that mean that all pharmacies do not have sub-standard falsified medicines?
“Sometimes they do because they mixed everything up for them but, at least, you will know the pharmacy is not like a hawker; do not buy medicine from a hawker.
“Anybody that buys medicine from a hawker, very likely, will be buying sub-standard, falsified medicine.
“Even if the medicine is right, in the beginning, by the time they take it round town, three to four times under the sun, it will break it down.
“I will encourage our people, please buy drugs from Pharmacies where you can get a receipt, where you can go back and say this medicine doesn’t work, I will report to NAFDAC.
“If it is just a corner store or hawker where you don’t know the person, who can you report?”
The NAFDAC boss expressed delight that the agency had reduced the percentage of sub-standard falsified medicine from 17 to 12 per cent.
“I believe we are decreasing sub-standard falsified medicine; we did a survey towards the end of 2021 and early this year where we went round on our own to sample from the different market and antimalarial drugs.
“What we got from our lab results is about 12 to 13 per cent sub-standard falsified medicine.
“It used to be 17 when I came and we have decreased it to 12 to 13 per cent which is significant.
“However, it is not nationwide; but we will go all over the country with detective devices.
“What we have found is what we have found; it maybe even less than 12 to 13 per cent but we want to be sure that it is nationwide.
“The point is that we are doing a survey, using risk-based sampling, to ensure that we have a handle on the prevalence of substance falsified medicines.”
The D-G said that the agency needed more manpower and enhanced capacity to effectively discharge its responsibilities, especially for post-marketing surveillance.
“We need a lot of staff. We need twice the number of staff we have right now, especially for post-marketing.
“Nigeria is very peculiar, surrounded by five countries that are not as strong in their regulatory activities as us.
“We have to also help the younger ones so that they have a strong regulatory system because, if one is weak, all are weak; it is a matter of time.
“So we are doing a lot of interaction among ourselves.
“We’ve formed a forum of Heads of agencies in West Africa.
“We meet every other month to discuss our challenges and help each other so that everybody will become stronger with time,” Adeyeye said.
