By Chioma Obinna & Rosemary Duru

LAGOS—THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, yesterday, directed manufacturers of drugs in Nigeria to start immediate implementation of the newly introduced anti-counterfeiting technologies, particularly the Mobile Authentication Services (Text Messaging) and the Radio-Frequency Identification, RFID.

This is coming on the heels of the cheering news by the Director-General of the Agency, Dr. Paul Orhii, that the country has managed the level of drug products faking to less than 5 per cent.

Handing down the directive during a meeting of stakeholders in Lagos, Orhii said the implementation became necessary to sustain the achievements made so far in reducing drug faking and adulteration in the country.
Challenges

According to him, although, the anti-counterfeiting technologies are currently facing some challenges, there is need to immediately start implementation for high rated drugs that cost N1,000 and above.

Orhii who stated that currently, NAFDAC was negotiating with the World Bank and other stakeholders to ensure that the prices of implementing the technologies did not affect the cost of products, said quick implementation of at least, the text messaging and RFID would prevent counterfeiters from messing up efforts of NAFDAC.

His said: “We are currently facing some challenges of which one comes first, particularly in the area of cost of chips. We are caught in the middle.

“We are negotiating with World Bank and others to bring the cost of text messaging from N10.00 to N2.00. Again, we have also negotiated the present cost of RFID of 10 cents to 5 cents, which is about N8.00. But we should not allow these prices to destroy our efforts so far.

“Also, we have been able to manage faking of medical products to less than 5 per cent and there is need to sustain this level. While we are still negotiating to see how we can still come down, there is need to start with products that cost above N1,000.”

Database underway

He further intimated that plans are underway to develop a database of NAFDAC regulated products that would ease problems of renewal of products as well as copying other people’s products.

Orhii said the database project, which would cost the agency about N200 million would also help for proper identification of expired and substandard products as well as stop manufacturers from copying other people’s products.

Continuing, he assured both manufacturers and consumers that although it may increase the cost of drugs for now, the prices would still come down as time goes on.