Fighting counterfeiting – the NAFDAC way
Grown from the foregoing quote is the sad taste of counterfeiting, which alarmingly constitutes into a transnational economic crime. Virtually all items of commerce are prey in the hands of counterfeiters. From clothing to accessories; equipment to machineries; to common foods and medications. All of these have been counterfeited. As a term, it loosely connotes […]
Grown from the foregoing quote is the sad taste of counterfeiting, which alarmingly constitutes into a transnational economic crime. Virtually all items of commerce are prey in the hands of counterfeiters. From clothing to accessories; equipment to machineries; to common foods and medications. All of these have been counterfeited.
As a term, it loosely connotes a process of fraudulently manufacturing, altering or distributing a product that is of lesser value than the original or genuine product. By this description, anything or product that is represented by imitation or likeness or having a resemblance to something else as portrayed could pass as counterfeit.
Globally, the picture of counterfeiting depicts an enormous strain on the resources of organisations engaged in genuine business. Huge resources deployed to research and product development is lost and investments crumble.
Consequently, job losses and eventual closures are imminent, whereas counterfeiters who invest only in packaging, smile to the banks with huge profits. This bad business slice through every product. One of such products mostly affected is medical products. Although the international community overtime, kept mute on the menace of counterfeit medicines, the efforts of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in engaging this issue at international discourse is worth a thought. Particularly considering the health and economic hazards counterfeit constitutes, the NAFDAC experience remains instructive in tackling this menace.
Prior to 2001, the incidence of counterfeit medicines ranged between 40-60% depending on different studies conducted at various times. However, due to the concerted efforts of NAFDAC, these startling figures dropped to about 16.7% in 2005 according to a study jointly undertaken by DFID/NAFDAC. The then Director General of the Agency, Professor Dora Akunyili, alongside her team, identified public enlightenment campaigns and massive enforcement as catalyst that enhanced the needed change. These processes were institutionalized. The advent of the incumbent Director General, Dr Paul Orhii, brought a new impetus to the entire war.
On assumption of office, Dr. Orhii pledged zero tolerance to counterfeit drugs and other substandard regulated products and promised to bring international standards to bear on the operations of the Agency in tackling this menace. To achieve this, NAFDAC under his leadership, evolved a multi-dimensional but well coordinated approach. This include among others, international collaboration with sister agencies across the globe, review of NAFDAC laws, upgrading of NAFDAC laboratories and surveillance systems, scaling up of public enlightenment campaigns, etc.
Like the first strategy, the Agency entered into information sharing arrangement with other countries. By this understanding, advanced information (or if you like pre-shipment information) on products meant for the Nigerian market is given. This enables NAFDAC to track the movement of regulated products intended for the country. Besides, due to this kind of collaborations, the Indian government tightened the noose around counterfeiting by enacting a law making it a criminal offense punishable by life sentence, the manufacture and distribution of spurious pharmaceutical products. Similarly, through the diplomatic efforts of the NAFDAC leadership, the Chinese Government handed death sentence to six of its nationals for the manufacture and export of fake pharmaceutical products to Nigeria.
This gesture by the Chinese Government raised a fundamental question on the seriousness of Nigeria to fight counterfeiting. Paradoxically, Nigeria as a country is worse hit by this menace, but most lenient in punishing offenders. Perhaps, it is in an effort to redress this that Dr. Orhii and his men at NAFDAC initiated a law review to make counterfeiting a non bailable offence, punishable by life jail term and confiscation of assets of the offenders. Currently, the draft of this law has been concluded and will soon be sent for passage to the National Assembly. It is hoped that when passed into law, the Agency will have a stronger teeth to wrestle counterfeiters to a halt.
However, the most innovative strategy in the current fight against counterfeiting is the use of cutting edge technologies. For instance, NAFDAC pioneered the use of a ground breaking device, the Truscan, a hand held device for screening drugs on the spot. This device has been deployed with resounding success at borders and within the country to detect fake medicines on the spot.
Furthermore, NAFDAC scored another first by launching the world’s first Anti-counterfeiting mobile authentication service (MAS) using text messaging for end-patient regulated medication. The import of this programme is to put the power of detecting medicines in the hands of 60 million Nigerian cell phone users. More recently, the Agency started the use of Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) for products and documents verification.
This technology has the potential to track and trace the movement of regulated products and prevent forgery of sensitive documents. Tied to this is on-coming purchase of an Israeli technology capable of screening over a 100 drug samples on the spot. The training for this programme for the Agency staff is underway, and when concluded, it will be deployed to use.
Again, the expansion of public enlightenment campaigns has worked tremendously in this fight for life. Regularly, NAFDAC uses the print and electronic media to create awareness. NAFDAC and Your Health, a television programme, has become a regular feature on Nigerian Television Authority network, AIT and Channels television stations. This programme provides avenue for consumer feedback while updating Nigerians on the activities of the Agency.
Ephraim Anjembe sent this piece from Abuja