Niamey – Former Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has said in Niamey that she is on the verge of completing the registration process of a foundation on safe medicine in Nigeria.

Akunyili said this in an interview with newsmen at the end of an award she received in the Nigerien capital in recognition of her role in combating counterfeit medicine in Nigeria.

She said that the foundation: “Dora Akunyili Foundation for Safe Medicine” will be a means of continuing and complementing Nigeria’s fight against counterfeit medicine.

“Right now, I have almost concluded the registration of Dora Akunyili Foundation for Safe Medicine; I want to use that foundation to continue the fight against counterfeit medicine.

“I pray that even when I leave this earth, that foundation will continue with the fight because I have been affected personally by what counterfeit drug could do to people.

“I know that too many families have suffered from it; very soon I am going to make public what I have done.’’

Akunyili said that it was her zeal to continue the fight whether or not she was still in NAFDAC, so that she could serve the nation and reduce drug counterfeiting to the barest minimum.

She added that her fight against counterfeit medicine would not stop as she had been hit personally and as such felt the pain of many Nigerian families who were casualties to counterfeit medicines.

“My younger sister, the best of all my siblings, died in 1988 from counterfeit insulin; we noticed she was getting multiple abscesses from these insulin injections.

“It didn’t occur to us that it’s possible for people to bottle water that is not sterile in the name of insulin; she eventually died.

“Could it be fake or not? Because there was no public awareness, so people were not actually sure of what was going on until I got to NAFDAC.

“My heart bled each time I got consignment of so-called insulin that was simple water, not even sterilised water; not only that the blood sugar will not be reduced but there would be infections.

“So, it affected me personally and that personal pain is part of the motivation.”

Akunyili recalled that counterfeit medicine did not start in 2001, but that the first case was noticed in Nigeria only in 1968 when a private sector investor divested as the sole distributor of pharmaceuticals.

She said that when regulators did not stand firm and became compromising, criminals would become masters and terrorise the nation.

She advised drug regulators all over Africa to be uncompromising so that counterfeiters would have no place to hide and wreak havoc.

Akunyili has also served the nation as a minister of information. (NAN)