Only 17% of drugs in Nigeria are substandard – NAFDAC

The Director General, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has said, contrary to reports that 70 per cent of drugs in use in the country are fake, only 17 per cent of drugs in circulation are substandard.

Stating this at a press briefing in Lagos Monday, she said the most recent study was done in 2012 by the United States Pharmacopeia and that no other study has been done since then.

Adeyeye, who was responding to viral reports on social media and online platforms that 70 per cent of drugs in the country were fake or substandard, said plans were on the way to embark on a new study, which she said would show that substandard drugs have been reduced to the minimum.

She said: “For essential medicine, it is much lower than the general medicine which is 17 per cent. Just March this year, the study we did showed that only 1.3 per cent of essential drugs in circulation were fake.

“In the general study we are planning, we will require at least 80 Truscans. And one Truscan cost at least $50,000. We will also do laboratory tests for further study.”

Truscan is a device used in ascertaining if medicines are authentic or fake.

Adeyeye said while she believes the country can be free from fake and substandard products, the country has the capacity to produce at least 70 per cent of its medicines.

“I am a firm believer of local production of medicines. We are not there yet, but it is possible,” she said.

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