Addressing drug counterfeiting through technology

An everyday scene in Africa, counterfeit and genuine drugs sold side by side

There is no gain saying that the use of pharmaceutical drugs is critical for the health and well-being of individuals. However, its access and consumption of drugs is likened to a double-edged sword: alleviate the manifestation of disease in an ailing person and if consumed wrongly without the prescription of a physician, can be injurious to one’s health system.

In spite of the potency of drugs when used, it is no longer news that pharmaceutical products, genuine and counterfeit are openly sold and marketed in the streets, markets, private and public places and un-licensed outlets across in Nigeria.

What is rather worrisome is how those involved in this trade have been able to so successfully sustain it in spite of the presence of relevant government agencies such as National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) in major cities in the country.

While efforts to head off the drug counterfeiting business in Nigeria started a long until now, stakeholders in the health sector reveal that the absence of an international legal framework and platform to fight drug counterfeiting remains a major challenge to checkmate the activities of drug counterfeiters nationally and globally even as the deployment of technology by NAFDAC seems to reverse this trend which has battered the image of the country over time. 

 Making this known to BusinessDay, Paul Orhii, director general, NAFDAC said that while the existence of a huge pharmaceutical market in the country and the state of the nation's borders has made the country a target destination for drug counterfeiters as well as a dumping ground for sub-standard products, the absence of an international legal framework and platform to fight drug counterfeiting remains a major challenge in both global and national efforts to checkmate the activities of drug counterfeiters.

According to the Director General “drug counterfeiting is a serious public health issue that should be confronted with strong legislation as well as the enactment of an international treaty. Recent global clampdown on illicit narcotic trade led by the USA has forced drug barons to invest heavily in the less risky but more lucrative drug counterfeiting business. These counterfeiters target medicines that are used in high volume and for managing diseases of public health interest.

“To eradicate the incidence of fake and sub-standard drugs in the country, the agency recently launched a series of cutting-edge technology in support of on-going efforts to rid the country of the menace. These technologies include Truscan, a hand-held device which has been tested and found to be very successful in policing the nation's porous borders as well as within the country for detecting counterfeit medicines on the spot. 

 “Other technologies currently deployed include Mobile Authentication Service which uses short message services for end-user regulated medication authentication and the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which is used for verification of regulated products and documents. The RFID which uses infra-red technology has the potential of enabling track-and-trace of regulated products and prevent forgery of sensitive documents. The deployment of technology in the fight against fake and sub-standard products may be new in Nigeria but it has been tested and found to be efficacious in other parts of the world including countries in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Lending his view, Omede Idris, president, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) described the scourge as an enemy of the medical profession.

According to Idris, “The integrity of doctors is now being questioned due to persistent illnesses which prescribed drugs fail to address. The fight against fake and sub-standard drugs is one doctors should be actively involved in.”

Only recently, a report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that more than 10 percent of medicines on the global drug market are adulterated; more than 25 percent of those in developing countries are counterfeit or sub-standard. The release came on the heels of another revelation by the World Customs Service that the annual drug counterfeiting business had reached an estimated $200 billion.

Furthermore, the United Nations global update on the fight against fake and sub-standard drug issued recently revealed that Nigeria had only achieved five percent success in her effort to combat the scourge, which had contributed immensely to the rising mortality in the country.

It is believed that the use of technology in detecting fake drugs is the greatest measure so far adopted by government to safeguard the health of Nigerians even as public health experts believe that will go a long way in reducing the volume of fake and substandard drugs in circulation.

For instance, in Tanzania, the use of mobile phone in a campaign tagged "Short Message Service (SMS) for life" proved effective in assisting Tanzanians check and track drug potency, validity and stock under a pilot drug management project.

In Kenya, mobile phone technology was also deployed to assist citizens check the genuineness of the drugs they buy via SMS on a platform named mPedigree, now operational in almost 15 African states. With the technology, Kenyans irrespective of their educational background, income or status are able to instantly verify the safety and efficacy of medicines purchased from outlets across the country. Already, the technology has the potential of assisting citizens stop falling prey to fake medicines which has flooded the continent.

While some observers are of the view that it is too early to assess the impact of the technology, many are of the opinion that the intensity of the problem warrants solutions that produce instant result. No doubt, winning the war against fake drug has at last become participatory, as every Nigerian now has a role to play, which role they must play for the success of the campaign against drug counterfeiting by government.

It will be recalled that following successes recorded in the use of technology to track and identify fake and sub-standard drugs on a pilot scale across the continent, the West African Health Organisation in 2010 adopted a stand to deploy technology in fighting drug counterfeiting.