Abuja — The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration is Control (NAFDAC) has disclosed that it had received encouragement from the Federal Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs and Justice as well as the National Assembly to enact laws imposing heavy penalty on convicted fake drug offenders in the country. The Director-General of the Agency, Dr. Paul Orhii, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at a world press conference on International Collaboration Against Counterfeit Drugs in Nigeria. He said the agency would, in the proposed new law, advocate death penalty or life-jail term for manufacturers and distributors of fake drugs, especially in situations where it is determined that such medicines caused death or injury.

The NAFDAC boss added that the Agency would seek to provide in the new law, a cause of action for victims of counterfeit drugs and actively encourage and assist victims gather evidence to enable them prosecute manufacturers for punitive damages to serve as deterrent to others. On the collaboration between the agency and the Chinese and Indian governments, Orhii said, "We are not only happy that fake drug offenders in India can now get maximum penalty but it excites us to know that their Nigerian collaborators will no longer have a free reign without facing the law." "The Indian government has pledged, and has already started giving us advance notice about counterfeit medical products intended for Nigerian markets".

In his goodwill message, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Peter Ereki, said that the dangers of counterfeit medicine were well known, but one danger that should be highlighted is that of drug resistance. "Counterfeiting not only jeopardizes the treatment of individuals who take the products but also leads to the development of resistant strains of the infectious agent which is a major additional public health problem", he said. According to Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, who represented the country representative, counterfeiting is a global business and thrives in countries with weak regulatory systems. "These same countries also often have drug shortages or weak healthcare systems which suffer drug shortages and many are unable to afford the medicines they need," he added. "Such countries are easy targets for this particularly pernicious trade". Similarly, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China and the Indian High Commission have jointly launched a massive campaign and onslaught against importers of counterfeit drugs and the collaborators.