THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has destroyed fake drugs, unwholesome foods and other substandard regulated products valued at N30 billion in the last six and half years.

The agency’s director-general, Dr. Paul Orhii, said this to reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, when he visited the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, in his palace.

He added that the proliferation of counterfeit products in the country was as a result of the inability to manufacture them locally.

Other dignitaries on his delegation include Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian American Agricultural Empowerment Programme Chief Temitope Ajayi; President, Project Fix Nigeria Chief Olusegun Kowontan; Director, Administration and Human Resources Management, NAFDAC Mrs. Yetunde Oni; and its Kwara State Director, Mrs. Bolaji Abayomi.

Dr. Orhii said: “More than 70 per cent of essential medicines for management of public health programmes were imported from other countries. So, what we have done is to encourage Nigerian local pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce medicines so that Nigeria can be self-sufficient in the supply of these medicines and we have succeeded.

“When we started, people thought I was just dreaming, but now, the World Health Organisation (WHO) came to approve four pharmaceutical companies last year alone, that their medicines now meet international standards and we can now export them.”

He added that the July deadline for all manufacturers of anti-malaria and antibiotics products for ‘scratch and pick’ authentication service on their products remains sacrosanct.

 “All manufacturers of antibiotic and anti malaria drugs by July this year should have their products with the ‘scratch and pick’ mobile authentication service on them so that consumers can scratch and authenticate the medicine before buying them.

“The advantage of the scratch card is that it makes it difficult for people to fake medicine that has scratch card on it. So, if we use the scratch card method, we have the opportunity to finally completely eradicate counterfeit in our system.

“The Emir of Ilorin tasked us to look for equipment that can show if a medicine has expired or not.

“I want to say the True Scan can help identify if medicine is fake or it has expired. This is because once the chemical composition is not the same with what we approved originally, it will fail the scanning,” the agency’s boss said.

He warned people against consumption of illicit items to avoid a repeat of mysterious death in Ondo State.

He said: “NAFDAC has been conducting mass public awareness campaigns to tell people not to patronise illicit gin. It was the consumption of illicit gin that caused the death of 18 people in Ondo State; because the gin they consumed contained methanol. Methanol is not the common ethanol that people consumed. So, we are warning members of the public not to patronise these products. They are not approved by NAFDAC.”

Alhaji Sulu-Gambari urged NAFDAC to prevent importation of expired drugs into the country.

He said: “I hope it will also be extended to cover expired drugs because most of the drugs advertised in Nigeria get expired from Europe before being shipped to Nigeria for sale. That is why you have fake drugs. Expired drug is even more dangerous than fake drug.”