NPHCDA had disclosed on its website ahead of the Primary Healthcare Summit tagged, ‘Re-imaging Primary Health Care in Nigeria’ that over 70 percent of medical drugs being dispensed in Nigeria are substandard and that majority of Nigerians do not have access to health services.
The agency stated that the country is faced with a number of healthcare challenges.
According to the NPHCDA, “Majority of Nigerians do not have access to health services; 20 per cent of all maternal deaths globally occur in Nigeria; infant mortality occurs at a rate of 19 deaths per 1,000 births. Children under five are dying at a rate of 128 per 1,000, while over 70 per cent of medical drugs dispensed in Nigeria are substandard.
“The weaknesses of the PHC system led to the under-utilisation of the PHC, resulting in significant burden within the health sector, with patients over-lying on tertiary and secondary health care services.
“Exorbitant health expenditures to access care place huge financial burdens on households and drive poverty.”
However, in his reaction to the claim, the National Chairman of ACPN, Pharm. Adewale Oladigbolu, said the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, is not the final authority to speak on the quality of medicines in Nigeria.
He said, “We know that probably the executive secretary is being misquoted and because there is no literature that says that 70 per cent of drugs in Nigeria are substandard.
“There is no justification for that kind of report and without mincing words, the executive secretary is not the final authority when it comes to the quality of medicines in Nigeria. The final authority is the director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Mojisola Adeyeye.
“So far, she (NAFDAC DG) has not issued that statement, the Nigerian community of pharmacists will not believe such statement. It is like trying to rubbish the whole country.”
Oladigbolu further noted that there is no scientific backing to the statement.
He added, “There is no survey to support it and as I speak to you, I know that NAFDAC will make an appropriate response but from us who are practitioners, there is no justification for that statement. There is no quality assurance survey to justify what the executive director of NPHCDA has said.
“I want to put it on record that we, as Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, want to believe that he is being misquoted because truly, if 70 per cent of medicines in Nigeria are substandard, that means our healthcare is in shambles. And like we all know, people are still surviving.
“People still get malaria and still survive. People have hypertension and are being treated and it is an evidence-based treatment. When they take their medicines, they become okay, when you check their blood pressure, they become normal. People have diabetes and their sugar level is being maintained; these are evidence-based.”
He, however, said the Community Pharmacists await the response from the NAFDAC DG to debunk the NPHCDA’s claim on substandard drugs in Nigeria.
“We are waiting for the response from NAFDAC, who is the final authority in drug quality in Nigeria to issue a statement to debunk it.
“As far as we are concerned as practitioners, it is not true that we have 70 per cent of substandard drugs in Nigeria and it is degrading to our healthcare system. So, we will not believe it. There is no scientific backing to it and we will wait for the clarification from the DG of NAFDAC,” he said.
Source: HealthWise
