Influx of fake drugs to Nigeria worries health experts

Nigerian health experts are worried over the influx of fake and substandard drugs into the country, which they complain is endangering the public's health.

Dr Dora Akunyili, director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, said that fake drugs are responsible for the growing number of cases of hypertension, heart failure, stroke, and other illnesses in Nigeria.

“When people are taking fake or substandard antihypertension drugs, their blood pressure will continue to rise—because what they are taking is rubbish—until they go down with stroke or even die,” she said. “Some of these fake drugs contain nothing. Some of them contain chalk, milk in capsules, and some of them contain little of the active ingredients.

“The fakers are very smart. They know for instance that a drug like chloroquine is bitter and that if they don't put a little chloroquine in their fake chloroquine, people will know that it is not chloroquine. So instead of the 200 mg chloroquine that should be in the tablet, they will put 41 mg. That is what we have been getting from our analysis.”

Dr Akunyili said there was an increase in reported cases of patients who no longer respond to genuine antibiotics as a result of resistance induced by previous intake of fake antibiotics. But not all fake drugs in Nigeria come from abroad. Unscrupulous local manufacturers are also involved in the racket.

Mohammed Yaro Budah, a pharmacist and the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, said that 70% of the drugs in Nigeria are fake. It is believed that imported fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria come mainly from India, China, Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia.

“During the Indo-African health summit last year, we sensitised and convinced the Indian health authorities to help us stop exportation of substandard drugs to Nigeria,” said Abubakar Jimoh, spokesman for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.

“We are very pleased that we now have the full cooperation of the Indian government. They send to us on a regular basis the list of blacklisted Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers and those involved in fake products.

“We held meetings with ambassadors of countries identified as sources of fake drug exportation into Nigeria. These countries, which include China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt and India, have already begun to take measures to discourage this racket.”

The national agency, which is charged with drug control in Nigeria, said that it also plans to visit and inspect pharmaceutical plants that export drugs to Nigeria to ensure that they are certified by the World Health Organization. It also plans to send approved analysts to exporting countries to carry out pre-shipment inspection of drugs meant for Nigeria. The exercise is scheduled to begin with India next June, with other countries following later.