The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has embarked on sensitisation of healthcare providers in Oyo State about substandard and falsified medical products.
At the event on Wednesday in Ibadan, Mrs Roseline Ajayi, South-West Director of NAFDAC, said the programme was in line with the agency’s mandate to regulate and control activities surrounding regulated products.
“Our concern today has to do with drugs. There has been survey conducted globally and locally under the current administration of Prof. Adeyeye.
“A survey was conducted in 2020, and prevalent of substandard and falsified products was determined. Since then, the concern has been to bring the rate low.
“Having high prevalence of substandard and falsified products means that some of the patients might die as a result of therapeutic failure, which will compromise our mandate.
“One of the strategies being used is aggressive sensitisation of different stakeholders as being done today,” she said.
The director said that NAFDAC was engaging especially people in distribution of healthcare products such as drugs.
“We have shown them what we discovered on the field and how they can identify substandard products.
“The sensitisation will not end here. We also have advocacy visit to traditional rulers, churches, mosques.
“We have many of the pharmacists that are involved in the distribution of medicines, to enlighten them on what to look out for.
“We want to see how we can bring this incidence to the barest minimum,” she said.
Ajayi remarked that substandard and falsified products might be cheap but could cause danger.
She added that patronising quacks because of cheap prices was like postponing the evil day.
“This is because they will still spend that money and even more later to get the right product.
“If a product does not carry the manufacturer’s name, know that the product is not registered by NAFDAC.
“The NAFDAC registration number is the agency’s pronouncement and endorsement on a product.
“If the manufacturer’s address is not there, once the product carries the address of a marketer without that of the manufacturer, it is an indication that it is fake.
“Also, having spelling errors on the product is an indication that it is fake. Original products have scratch places where one can check the authenticity of the product.
“We are sensitising distributors so that they can always know if a product is substandard or not,” Ajayi said.
Also, Mr Adebayo Gbadamosi, the Chairman of Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Oyo State Branch, urged Nigerians to always patronise only registered pharmacists to get quality drugs.
“Even at the registered pharmacists stores, still check the manufacturing and expiry dates as well as the batch numbers before swallowing any drug.
“People should desist from taking or combining antibiotics because it can affect the liver or kidney, people should always get experts’ advice before taking drugs,”Gbadamosi said. (NAN)
