NAFDAC seeks stiffer penalties for fake drug dealers

By Tony Edike

ENUGU—THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday called for the enactment of law prescribing stiffer penalties for drug counterfeiters. It asked the nation to emulate China’s approach to the battle against fake drugs.

South-East Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Mr. Festus Anumba, who made the call in Enugu, said the incidence of drug faking was addressed by the Asian country through imposition of stiff penalties on offenders.

He called on the National Assembly to consider a review of the laws on counterfeit products, insisting that the producers and importers  of fake and sub-standard drugs would continue to be tackled by NAFDAC with all the resources at its disposal.

Anumba stated that the law on fake and sub-standard drugs, as currently constituted, was not commensurate with the offence, adding that many of those who were sanctioned in the past have been caught engaging in the illicit business.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen shortly after a   meeting with patent medicine dealers at Ogbete market, Enugu, Monday, the NAFDAC director explained that the parley was to remind the traders of the dangerous effects of counterfeit drugs and the sanctions that offenders face if caught.