The agency reported on Tuesday that its nationwide survey of the quality of anti-malaria medicine showed a “drastic reduction” from 19.6% in 2012 to 3.6% in 2015.

 

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Only about four out of 100 antimalaria medicne—down from about 20 three years ago—on the market are counterfeited, according to a new survey released by the National National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

 

The agency reported on Tuesday that its nationwide survey of the quality of anti-malaria medicine showed a “drastic reduction” from 19.6% in 2012 to 3.6% in 2015.

 

 

It is the second biggest reduction in prevalence of counterfeit anti-malaria medicines since 2008, when a survey by the WHO found a 64% incidence of fake antimalarials in Nigeria and 13 other african countries.

 

NAFDAC has attributed the fall to 19.6% in 2012 and to 3.6% this year has to its deployment of “new anti-counterfeiting cutting-edge technologies such as TRUSCAN, Mobile Authentication Services (MAS), Mini-laboratory and Deep Infra-red technology, according to the agency’s director-general Paul Orhii.

 

The survey was jointly undertaken by the National Malaria Elimination Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC with the funding support by United States Pharmacopeia and USAID.

 

It comes shortly after the agency seized counterfeit drugs worth more than N5 billion from five warehouse in Lagos.

 

By Judd-Leonard Okafor

Daily Trust