By Cosmas Omegoh, Lagos
The President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria Prof. Cyril Usifoh has paid a courtesy visit to pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, seeking collaboration to fight illicit drug trade across the country.
Prof Usifoh was received by the Country Manager/Cluster Lead for West Africa, Mr Olayinka Subairm, reiterated the need for industry players to join forces in creating awareness on the dangers of counterfeit medicine and pharmaceutical products.
In his comment, Subair, a pharmacist, noted that “the threat of counterfeits is going away,” adding that “Pfizer is seeking collaboration with stakeholders to educate consumers on counterfeit medicines because patients need the knowledge to protect their health from counterfeiters.”
He observed that counterfeit medicines often miss key ingredients and dosages, or contain added, harmful ingredients. And as a result, patients who take counterfeits, including life-saving medicines for cancer and heart disease, lose the therapeutic benefits they rely on to treat their conditions.
He informed that to tackle the threat of counterfeits to patients’ health, Pfizer was collaborating with industry stakeholders to ensure that patients had the information they needed to avoid counterfeit medicines.
“Pfizer is seeking collaboration with government agencies, pharmaceutical organisations, doctors, pharmacists, and industry partners to help raise awareness of the growing problem of counterfeit medicines,” said Subair.
He assured that “together, we seek to tackle this threat to patient health by stopping counterfeits before they reach patients, giving consumers information they need to make the right choices, and supporting health care providers in our communities.”
In his response, Prof. Usifoh said: “The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria as a body that seeks to maintain a high standard of professional ethics and discipline among its members, will give all the support to work together with Pfizer. We will see how we can amplify by reaching out to stakeholders and how far we can go in driving this campaign successfully.”
