New Delhi: Nigeria has taken up with the
world police organisation Interpol the issue of fake drugs
seized in the African country with a "Made in India" label,
allegedly originating in China.
"... We have contacted the Interpol, so the Interpol is
looking into the case. We hope to get to the bottom of it,"
National Agency for Food And Drug Administration And Control
(NAFDAC) Director-General Paul Orhii told reporters today.
He said the Chinese authorities have asked the Nigerian
government for more information regarding the case.
"They (Chinese) are (investigating) and I think they have
made some progress," he said. Nigeria was more vigilant and
scrutinising Chinese companies more closely after the seizure,
he added.
Orhii, however, said the incident has not affected the
image of Indian firms in the country.
"We made it immediately known to everybody that (the
drugs) are not made in India," he said on the sidelines of a
FICCI meet, adding, "we need to jointly conduct with the
Indian government a public awareness campaign about Indian
products coming to Nigeria".
Recently, fake drugs carrying the 'Made in India' label
were seized in Nigeria, but were allegedly manufactured in
China. India took up the issue with China as this could damage
the reputation of the 12-billion-dollar Indian pharmaceutical
industry in the global market.
NAFDAC has also sought to allay the apprehensions of the
Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry with a categorical
assurance that Nigeria would exclude patent issues and generic
drugs from the definition of counterfeit medicines.
Orhii said "We are here in India to work out the
modalities to jointly fight the menace of counterfeit
medicines. We are restructuring and modernising our regulatory
process and will encourage local production and build
capacities of the local industry to meet the WHO
requirements."
Meanwhile, India has also offered its assistance to
Nigeria to set up a mechanism for capacity building in terms
of bio-equivalence analysis, bio-safety analysis and setting
up of laboratories.
He said Nigeria would actively encourage the use of
generic medicines, which would act as a fillip to the import
of generic drugs from India as it is one of the world’s
largest producer of generic medicines.
Africa is an important market for the Indian
pharmaceutical industry. It accounts for about 15 per cent of
India’s total drugs exports worth USD 6 billion.
Bureau Report