By ChiomaOBINNA

Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam has lend its weight to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’s  (NAFDAC) current focus of zero tolerance to counterfeit regulated products in the country.

Suswam who declared  support to the fight against counterfeiting in the country noted that counterfeiting of medicines and drug hawking had remained major health challenges in the country, especially in rural areas where many people had been killed by the dangerous effects of these spurious drugs.

Commending NAFDAC for its sustained fight against counterfeit drugs and other substandard regulated products in the country, he promised to provide a befitting office accommodation with a large parcel of land to enhance the operations of the Agency in the state.

He applauded NAFDAC for the multi-dimensional but well coordinated approach in tackling the menace, and pledged to rally support of the National Assembly for improved funding of the Agency’s regulatory activities.

Earlier, Director General of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii who was on a working visit to the state said the Agency was spearheading the global efforts in the use of cutting edge technologies in fighting counterfeiting, which had significantly impacted on the reduction of this incidence in the urban areas and pledged to scale it up to the rural areas.

One of such technologies, Orhii hinted is a drug testing device capable of screening more than one hundred drug samples on the spot, which will soon be acquired by the Agency from Israel.