Your money will always
go up in flames, NAFDAC assures fakers
• Seizes N233m fake drugs
By IKENNA EMEWU
Saturday, February 9,
2008
After the major clampdown of NAFDAC on the notorious Onitsha
drug market that has remained a pain in the neck and a cog
in the wheel of the efforts to check drug faking in Nigeria,
another drug centre is now the most dreaded spot. It is in
Kano.
In less than one year, there have been two major raids on
that Kano market of death by NAFDAC with seizures of fake
drugs of a value in excess of N1bn with the latest invasion
of the den on January 29.
According to the head of operations of NAFDAC in Kano, Mr.
Gimba who confirmed the seizure to Saturday Sun, the raid
of the market was a huge success. “We still have several
shops locked up and many of the dealers of the fake drugs
in our custody. Those of them who are first offenders who
have complied with the fines have had their shops re-opened,
but those who are not first offenders will have to be prosecuted”.
He further explained that the fine NAFDAC charges is not to
permit the fakers return to business, but a warning because
the fake drugs are still seized and would be destroyed.
“We will not give them any respite until they change
their ways, because as far as we are concerned, the battle
against the fakers is still on and we won’t allow the
enemies of the society have an upper hand, and for now, any
of the offenders who does not comply with the condition of
paying fines will not have his shop back into business and
may even face prosecution like a second offender”.
He said the products involved in the faking are mainly some
analgesic brands used by many consumers.
Our source in the Lagos office of NAFDAC hinted that five
products whose fakes dominate the Kano market were impounded
while the Boska brand made about N122m of the entire confiscated
fake products. Yet, there is an entirely unknown and unregistered
brand of analgesic – (Bode) Sudrex which has no known
original variant the dealers have been dispensing to unsuspecting
Nigerians.
Your money will continue to burn
NAFDAC vowed in the discussion with Saturday Sun that since
the fakers have insisted on doing this illegal business and
putting lives of Nigerians in danger with their heartless
type of business, “we promise them that their money
will continue to go up in flames. There is no going back to
a state where the fakers who know the dangers of their activities
will be allowed to overrun this society unchecked. We have
taken a position and there is no going back on it.
“They insist on importing fake products, therefore we
will remain in raiding them, burning the products and frustrating
them to save Nigerians.
How the fakes come
If you want to understand the way faking is done in Nigeria,
especially through the China/Asian connection, pay a visit
to the car park of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport
in Lagos. There you will find Nigerian businessmen from around
eight o’clock in the morning line up with samples of
products they send to China and other Asian countries daily.
The product samples are wrapped in seals and flown as legal
cargo, a deal the Customs is well aware of. They include drugs,
cosmetics, electronic gadgets, discs, VCDs, DVD players, automobile
parts, toothbrushes, combs, soaps, GSM handsets, gels, hairdressings
items and anything else you would remember.
As the drug and other samples are brought, they are forwarded
to faking syndicates in China and other countries in Asia
from where the products come back in containers and ship loads
into the country. It is baffling to see products you know
well as manufactured by known companies in Nigeria being flown
out to be faked.
That is how these drug brands come in with malformed and convoluted
names which one way or the other is a corruption of the original,
and sometimes they bear the same name with the original with
designs perfectly mimicked.
Which drugs to take
With the dilemma in Kano and other markets in the country,
people that need drugs feel like asking which of the drugs
are really reliable and fit for their health.
Out of five analgesics NAFDAC recovered their fakes, the imitated
brands far outnumber the original. For every brand name, there
are at least five fake ones which reflect all manner of contraptions
of the original brand name.
For instance, Sudrex brand of medicine (NAFDAC no. 04-1860
has eight variants, all lacking NAFDAC numbers. They come
as Suclrex, Secorex, Zudrex, Samdrex, Zeadrex, Jardrex, Sadurex
and Kevidrex. These, according to NAFDAC are all fake and
unregistered. Funny enough, the pack designs are just the
same to an extent you need to see them placed side by side
and be told there are differences to notice those differences.
They all come in deep red packs of the same size and design.
Beware that the Medik-55 you have known now has a fake variant
called Miclik-55 all from the Kano market, while Boska has
its fake cousin named Poska, with same design and just in
fairly bigger pack.
NAFDAC also warned that Procold (NAFDAC number 04-0761) has
been replicated into Milcold, Clear Cold, Prukold, Escold,
Flucold and many others, which the agency warned are not safe
for consumption.
“The call of the agency to the public is to be aware
of these fake products which are harmful to the health”,
Gimba alerted. |
