FG declares war against importers of fake medicines

•Grants 5-year market exclusivity to innovative local pharmaceutical companies.

By Luminous Jannamike

THE Federal Government has declared war against importers of substandard and falsified medicines into the country, saying testing of pharmaceutical ingredients included in all imported drug products would be made mandatory from January 2020.

Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Moji Adeyeye, announced this at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

She said, “Unpatriotic businessmen involved in the illegal importation and distribution of fake medicines target drugs with high volume of use, such as; antimalarials, antibiotics, lifestyle drugs, antidiabetic agents and antihypertensives.

“However, our strategic plan for curbing the menace is to reduce substandard and falsified medicine to not more than five percent prevalence in Nigeria by 2025.

“We are making it mandatory from January 2020 to identify and test the active pharmaceutical ingredient for all imported drug products to ensure that the international standards for drug content expected in the products is what is included at the point of manufacture.”

Adeyeye also said the Federal Government would give 5-year market exclusivity to innovative local pharmaceutical companies that have the capacity to meet the country demand to encourage domestic production.

According to her, there would be no approval of a similar product or medicine by NAFDAC during the 5-year exclusivity period.

The DG added, “Having known that significant amounts of substandard and falsified medicines are imported as unregistered, or registered but with compromise on the content after approval to become substandard, one of our drives is to encourage local manufacturing for products that can be made in Nigeria.

“We will advise importers whose products have enjoyed 5-year registration and are due for renewal to produce blue print of migration to local manufacturing or to partner with local manufacturers, if they so wish.”