Pharmacists under the auspices of Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) have debunked claims of an alarm on the dangers of recent rumours making rounds that fake drugs circulation in the country has increased to about 70 per cent.
Samuel Adekola, Chairman ACPN , said that the claim is counterproductive to the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry to boost its contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and global perception.
Adekola in a recent statement jointly signed by Bose Idowu, the National Secretary of ACPN and made insisted that the information is not only false, but misleading.
The statement read; “The attention of ACPN had been drawn to recurring insinuations that the incidence of drug faking in Nigeria had risen to 70 per cent despite efforts of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), and other regulatory bodies to stem the tide of the unethical practice.”
The ACPN boss said; “This unfortunate and potentially dangerous act was taken to a climax on a popular radio station on Thursday May 8, 2019 when an impostor who claimed to be a Pharmacist corroborated the false claim in his submissions.”
The ACPN chairman also explained that it was sometimes in November, 2016 that the Country Director of a notable Management Firm erroneously circulated information that 70 per cent of drugs in circulation in Nigeria were faked.
This misrepresentation, he said, was quickly pointed out to the Country Director, adding that the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), in well publicised articles, also debunked the claims in 2016 to instill confidence in consumers of health products in Nigeria.”
Adekola said that even in the worst of times, the incidence of faking was documented as 33 per cent in open markets in 1988 which rose to 49.6 percent according to a 1998 study
Adekola noted that despite all efforts, the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is still less than two per cent because of poor patronage locally and internationally.
He said; “At a time the PMG-MAN continues to project and position Nigeria to become a West African hub for the procurement of Made-in-Nigeria drugs nothing can be more destructive than this unfounded rumour which continues to resurrect despite all efforts to put issues in the right perspective.”
Adekola also said that the ACPN as veritable stakeholders, seriously warns propagandists that there must be a limit to mischief making because of the damaging consequences to the professional integrity of practising pharmacists, global rating of their regulators and of course the diminishing returns it constitutes to the pharmaceutical industry.
He alleged that a pharmacist whom the ACPN described as ‘an impostor’ had on Thursday, May 8, 2019 insinuated on a popular radio station programme that the incidence of drug faking in Nigeria had risen to 70 per cent.
He insisted that there are scientific proofs that indicated that there is a downward trend in the circulation of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products in the country.
The association said it is reckless, displeasing and irresponsible to say that the fake drug incidence in Nigeria had increased to that level , rather 17 per cent.
