NAFDAC partners PCN in combating counterfeit drugs

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it is collaborating with the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) to eradicate the production and sale of counterfeit drugs in the country. The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this in an interview on Monday in Abuja. “We are going to be collaborating with PCN as part of enforcement; we had an in-house meeting and the collaboration is all about Nigerians and not about NAFDAC or PCN. “NAFDAC and PCN will many times go out for enforcement. NAFDAC has the power to enforce, while PCN has the power to shut down the pharmacy or illegal pharmaceutical practice. “The combination of both organisations will reduce the prevalence of substandard and falsified medicine,’’ she said. According to Adeyeye, the agency has made it compulsory for any importer in the country to have the agency's registration certificate. She, however, said there had been a few cases of forgery of the agency’s certificate, adding that its meeting with members of Clean Report and Inspection Agent (CRIA) had revealed a lot of things. “It is important to control the shipping of goods into the country from the source. If that is not done, substandard and falsified goods will keep on coming into the country. “If you don’t control it at the source, they will keep coming and whatever testing you are doing here, will be of no use. “That is one of the methods that we are using to ensure we have quality medicine,” Adeyeye said. She further said that the agency was working with the Africa Medicine Regulation and Harmonisation to ensure that Africa people had medicines that was of high quality.