Pharmaceutical industries lose $46bn to counterfeit drugs - Akunyili

Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja - 10.02.2008

Pharmaceutical industries worldwide lose over $46 billion to the activities of the counterfeit drug dealers annually. They are also responsible for the sales of counterfeit drugs, estimated at $32billion annually. The Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Dora Akunyili, made this known in South Africa during the conference on strategies to combat drug counterfeiting in Africa.

She disclosed that drug counterfeiting was on the increase in the United States of America, rising from nine cases in 1997 to 59 in 2006. The NAFDAC DG urged other African countries to learn from Nigeria in the fight against fake drugs where N22 billion worth of fake drugs have been destroyed in the last six years, with more than 45 offenders convicted by the court of law.

She asserted that the forum would afford heads of African Regulatory Agencies to share information, intelligence services and harmonize effective strategies for tackling drug counterfeiting which had thrived for ages because of lack of awareness.

To her, developing countries, particularly the poor, bear the brunt because they are more predisposed to sickness as a result of poor living conditions. “Drug counterfeiting is the worst form of man’s inhumanity to man. NAFDAC will soon commence the use of serialised holographic label to safeguard NAFDAC registration number on registered products to prevent counterfeiters from copying and faking NAFDAC numbers,” she stated.

The conference chairman, Professor Tervor Jones, commended African Regulatory Network (ARN) which organised the conference, observing that the themes and objectives of the conference offer opportunity to promote partnership between African regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry.