Kwara safe of counterfeit drugs- NAFDAC
By Mosunmola Ayobami,Ilorin
The Director North -East zone of National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration Control (NAFDAC), Kenneth Azikiwe, has said with the level of enlightenment and compliance of manufacturers with the agency’s standard rules, Kwara state could be said to be counterfeit drugs and products free.
Azikiwe who served as kwara state Coordinator of the agency said the agency often embarked on mystery shopping where products were picked to certify the standard.
He made this disclosure while speaking with WesternPost at the agency’s office in Ilorin on Tuesday.
“We do mystery shopping,we take the NAFDAC number, pick up the product send it to our labouratory to see if the product is still up to standard,this is done under post market surveillance, where all the products are monitored.
“To a large extent,kwara is counterfeit products free, owing to enlightenment programmes at all levels,so kwara is safe” he said.
According to him,”We have clampdown on quite a number of sub standard manufacturers,for manufacturers and distributors we have about 35 outlets(retails) in less than a year, and 11 manufacturers at nano and macro levels commit most of the violation,the big manufacturers always do the right thing”.
The Director said in the last two years and two months spent in the state, the agency have achieved a lot in ensuring only safe, good quality and efficacy drugs made are available.
He added ” The agency has been able to go to the nooks and crannies of kwara, mop up unregistered products, while many of the violators after paying penalties, registered their products”.
He said the agency monitored how the pharmacies in the state bring in their control substance and the usage to avoid any form of discrepancies.
“Routine monitoring of products and facilities are been done to ensure what the stakeholders consume are safe and any violator caught would face the penalty of the facility shut down”, said Azikiwe.
Azikiwe urged Kwarans to patronize only NAFDAC registered products, saying if an adverse effects was noticed,the attention of NAFDAC should be brought to the product for proper investigation.
He urged the manufacturers to carry out routine checks on their products and processes so that they do not end up producing poor quality products, leaving the consumer to suffer for it.
He said any manufacturer caught with poor products would face stringent penalty.
“My achievement in kwara in the last two years and two months as the state Coordinator is taking small scale products to another height,as of last year we were the highest in North Central with that record”, said Azikiwe.
On organic products he said “The process for registering is like registering any other products in the agency,my concern is what people call organic, when we call organic, there are certain percentage of that organic products that should be inside,you must have a facility, which varies in medium,macro and nano products, for medium, you must be registered with Coorperate Affairs Commission (CAC),brand the product, submission of procedures, fumigation certificate, and medical certificate of fitness to be uploaded on the website of the agency,then physical inspection of facility would be carried out,we take the sample of the product send it to our labouratory, once certified,then a product can be registered on condition that all the aforementioned will be uphold, failure to do that there will penalty”.
